Wavelet spectral timing: X-ray reverberation from a dynamic black hole corona hidden beneath ultrafast outflows

Abstract

Spectral timing analyses based upon wavelet transforms provide a new means to study the variability of the X-ray emission from accreting systems, including AGN, stellar mass black holes and neutron stars, and can be used to trace the time variability of X-ray reverberation from the inner accretion disc. The previously-missing iron K reverberation time lags in the AGN IRAS 13224-3809 and MCG-6-30-15 are detected and found to be transitory in nature. Reverberation can be hidden during periods in which variability in the iron K band becomes dominated by ultrafast outflows (UFO). Following the time evolution of the reverberation lag between the corona and inner accretion disc, we may observe the short-timescale increase in scale height of the corona as it is accelerated away from the accretion disc during bright X-ray flares in the AGN I Zw 1. Measuring the variation of the reverberation lag that corresponds to the continuous, stochastic variations of the X-ray luminosity sheds new light on the disc-corona connection around accreting black holes. Hysteresis is observed between the X-ray count rate and the scale height of the corona, and a time lag of 10~40ks is observed between the rise in luminosity and the increase in reverberation lag. This correlation and lag are consistent with viscous propagation through the inner accretion disc, leading first to an increase in the flux of seed photons that are Comptonised by the corona, before mass accretion rate fluctuations reach the inner disc and are able to modulate the structure of the corona.