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Register a new userKepler Photometry of Four Radio-Loud AGN in 2010-2012
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We have used Kepler photometry to characterize variability in four radio-loud active galactic nuclei (three quasars and one object tentatively identified as a Seyfert 1.5 galaxy) on timescales from minutes to months, comparable to the light crossing time of the accretion disk around the central supermassive black hole or the base of the relativistic jet. Keplers almost continuous observations provide much better temporal coverage than is possible from ground-based observations. We report the first such data analyzed for quasars. We have constructed power spectral densities using 8 Kepler quarters of long-cadence (30-minute) data for three AGN, 6 quarters for one AGN and 2 quarters of short-cadence (1-minute) data for all four AGN. On timescales longer than about 0.2-0.6 day, we find red noise with mean power-law slopes ranging from -1.8 to -1.2, consistent with the variability originating in turbulence either behind a shock or within an accretion disk. Each AGN has a range of red noise slopes which vary slightly by month and quarter of observation. No quasi-periodic oscillations of astrophysical origin were detected. We detected several days-long flares when brightness increased by 3% - 7% in two objects. No flares on timescales of minutes to hours were detected. Our observations imply that the duty cycle for enhanced activity in these radio-loud AGN is small. These well-sampled AGN light curves provide an impetus to develop more detailed models of turbulence in jets and instabilities in accretion disks.
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We present a study of the central engine in the broad-line radio galaxy 3C120 using a multi-epoch analysis of a deep XMM-Newton observation and two deep Suzaku pointings (in 2012). In order to place our spectral data into the context of the disk-disruption/jet-ejection cycles displayed by this object, we monitor the source in the UV/X-ray bands, and in the radio band. We find three statistically acceptable spectral models, a disk-reflection model, a jet-model and a jet+disk model. Despite being good descriptions of the data, the disk-reflection model violates the radio constraints on the inclination, and the jet-model has a fine-tuning problem, requiring a jet contribution exceeding that expected. Thus, we argue for a composite jet+disk model. Within the context of this model, we verify the basic predictions of the jet-cycle paradigm, finding a truncated/refilling disk during the Suzaku observations and a complete disk extending down to the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) during the XMM-Newton observation. The idea of a refilling disk is further supported by the detection of the ejection of a new jet knot approximately one month after the Suzaku pointings. We also discover a step-like event in one of the Suzaku pointings in which the soft band lags the hard band. We suggest that we are witnessing the propagation of a disturbance from the disk into the jet on a timescale set by the magnetic field.
We present results from a study of a nuclear emission of a nearby radio galaxy, 4C+29.30, over a broad 0.5-200 keV X-ray band. This study used new XMM-Newton (~17 ksec) and Chandra (~300 ksec) data, and archival Swift/BAT data from the 58-month catalog. The hard (>2 keV) X-ray spectrum of 4C+29.30 can be decomposed into an intrinsic hard power-law (Gamma ~ 1.56) modified by a cold absorber with an intrinsic column density N_{H,z} ~ 5x10^{23} cm^{-2}, and its reflection (|Omega/2pi| ~ 0.3) from a neutral matter including a narrow iron Kalpha emission line at the rest frame energy ~6.4 keV. The reflected component is less absorbed than the intrinsic one with an upper limit on the absorbing column of N^{refl}_{H,z} < 2.5x10^{22} cm^{-2}. The X-ray spectrum varied between the XMM-Newton and Chandra observations. We show that a scenario invoking variations of the normalization of the power-law is favored over a model with variable intrinsic column density. X-rays in the 0.5-2 keV band are dominated by diffuse emission modeled with a thermal bremsstrahlung component with temperature ~0.7 keV, and contain only a marginal contribution from the scattered power-law component. We hypothesize that 4C+29.30 belongs to a class of `hidden AGN containing a geometrically thick torus. However, unlike the majority of them, 4C+29.30 is radio-loud. Correlations between the scattering fraction and Eddington luminosity ratio, and the one between black hole mass and stellar velocity dispersion, imply that 4C+29.30 hosts a black hole with ~10^8 M_{Sun} mass.
We investigate the relation between the two modes of outflow (wind and jet) in radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN). For this study we have carried out a systematic and homogeneous analysis of XMM-Newton spectra of a sample of 16 suitable radio-loud Seyfert-1 AGN. The ionised winds in these AGN are parameterised through high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy and photoionisation modelling. We discover a significant inverse correlation between the column density NH of the ionised wind and the radio-loudness parameter R of the jet. We explore different possible explanations for this NH-R relation and find that ionisation, inclination, and luminosity effects are unlikely to be responsible for the observed relation. We argue that the NH-R relation is rather a manifestation of the magnetic driving mechanism of the wind from the accretion disk. Change in the magnetic field configuration from toroidal to poloidal, powering either the wind or the jet mode of the outflow, is the most feasible explanation for the observed decline in the wind NH as the radio jet becomes stronger. Our findings provide evidence for a wind-jet bimodality in radio-loud AGN and shine new light on the link between these two modes of outflow. This has far-reaching consequences for the accretion disk structure and the wind ejection mechanism.
Radio-loud AGN (>10^{22} W/Hz at 1.4 GHz) will be the dominant bright source population detected with the SKA. The high resolution that the SKA will provide even in wide-area surveys will mean that, for the first time sensitive, multi-frequency total intensity and polarisation imaging of large samples of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) will become available. The unprecedented sensitivity of the SKA coupled with its wide field of view capabilities will allow identification of objects of the same morphological type (i.e. the entire FR I, low- and high-luminosity FR II, disturbed morphology as well as weak radio-emitting AGN populations) up to high redshifts (z~4 and beyond), and at the same stage of their lives, from the youngest CSS/GPS sources to giant and fading (dying) sources, through to those with restarted activity radio galaxies and quasars. Critically, the wide frequency coverage of the SKA will permit analysis of same-epoch rest-frame radio properties, and the sensitivity and resolution will allow full cross-identification with multi-waveband data, further revealing insights into the physical processes driving the evolution of these radio sources. In this chapter of the SKA Science Book we give a summary of the main science drivers in the studies of lifecycles and detailed physics of radio-loud AGN, which include radio and kinetic luminosity functions, AGN feedback, radio-AGN triggering, radio-loud AGN unification and cosmological studies. We discuss the best parameters for the proposed SKA continuum surveys, both all-sky and deep field, in the light of these studies.
Radio-loud quasars (RLQs) are known to produce excess X-ray emission, compared to radio-quiet quasars (RQQs) of the same luminosity, commonly attributed to jet-related emission. Recently, we found that the HeII EW and $alpha_{rm{ox}}$ in RQQs are strongly correlated, which suggests that their extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) and X-ray emission mechanisms are tightly related. Using 48 RLQs, we show that steep-spectrum radio quasars (SSRQs) and low radio-luminosity ($L_{rm R}$) flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) follow the $alpha_{rm ox}$--HeII EW relation of RQQs. This suggests that the X-ray and EUV emission mechanisms in these types of RLQs is the same as in RQQs, and is not jet related. High-$L_{rm R}$ FSRQs show excess X-ray emission given their HeII EW by a factor of $approx$ 3.5, which suggests that only in this type of RLQ is the X-ray production likely jet related.
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