Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · astro-ph/0210300

Long-Term, Continuous Monitoring of the Broad Line Radio Galaxies 3C 390.3 and 3C 120 With the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer

M. Gliozzi·R. M. Sambruna·M. Eracleous
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We present a study of the flux and spectral variability of the two broad-line radio galaxies (BLRGs) 3C 390.3 and 3C 120, observed almost daily with RXTE for nearly two months each in 1996 and 1997, respectively. Our original motivation for this study was to search for systematic differences between BLRGs and their radio-quiet counterparts, the Seyfert galaxies, whose temporal and spectral behavior is better studied. We find that both 3C 390.3 and 3C 120 are highly variable, but in a different way, and quantify this difference by means of a structure function analysis. 3C 390.3 is significantly more variable than 3C 120, despite its jet larger inclination angle, implying either that the X-ray variability is not dominated by the jet or that two different variability processes are simultaneously at work in 3C 390.3. We performed an energy-selected and time-resolved analysis based on the fractional variability amplitude and found that the variability amplitude of both objects is strongly anticorrelated with the energy. This last result, along with the correlated change of the photon index with the X-ray continuum flux, can be qualitatively explained within the scenario of thermal Comptonization, generally invoked for radio-quiet active galaxies. Moreover, the time-resolved and energy-selected fractional variability analyses show a trend opposite to that observed in jet-dominated AGN (blazars), suggesting only a minor contribution of the jet to the X-ray properties of BLRGs. Time-averaged spectral analysis indicates the presence of a strong, resolved iron line with centroid at 6.4 keV and a weak reflection component in both objects. The overall PCA+HEXTE spectra are best fitted with the constant density ionization model of Ross & Fabian, but with a modest ionization parameter(abridged).

Explore related subjects

astro-ph

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

M. Gliozzi, R. M. Sambruna, M. Eracleous. 2002-10-14. Long-Term, Continuous Monitoring of the Broad Line Radio Galaxies 3C 390.3 and 3C 120 With the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer. https://doi.org/10.1086/345661

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2023

Dark Energy is the Cosmological Quantum Vacuum Energy of Light Particles-The Axion and the Lightest Neutrino

We uncover the general mechanism producing the dark energy(DE). This is only based on well known quantum physics and cosmology. We show that the observed DE originates from the cosmological quantum vacuum of light particles which provides a continuous energy distribution able to reproduce the data. Bosons give positive contributions to the DE while fermions yield negative contributions. As usual in field theory, ultraviolet divergences are subtracted from the physical quantities. The subtractions respect the symmetries of the theory and we normalize the physical quantities to be zero for the Minkowski vacuum. The resulting finite contributions to the energy density and the pressure from the quantum vacuum grow as log a(t) where a(t) is the scale factor, while the particle contributions dilute as 1/a^3(t), as it must be for massive particles. The DE equation of state P = w(z)H turns to be w(z)<-1 with w(z) asymptotically reaching the value -1 from below.A scalar particle can produce the observed DE through its quantum cosmological vacuum provided:(i)its mass is of the order of 10^{-3} eV = 1 meV,(ii) it is very weakly coupled and (iii) it is stable on the time scale of the age of the universe. The axion vacuum thus appears as a natural candidate. The neutrino vacuum (especially the lightest mass eigenstate) can give negative contributions to the DE. We find that w(z=0) is slightly below -1 by an amount ranging from [-1.5 10^{-3}] to [-8 10^{-3}] and we predict the axion mass to be in the range between 4 and 5 meV. We find that the universe will expand in the future faster than the de Sitter universe, as an exponential in the square of the cosmic time. DE arises from the quantum vacua of light particles in FRW cosmological space time in an analogous way to the Casimir effect in Minkowski spacetime with non trivial boundaries.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2023

Scaling of Black Hole Accretion Discs from Gamma-Ray Bursts and Black Hole X-Ray Binaries to Active Galactic Nuclei

I consider how physical processes scale over eight orders of magnitude in black hole mass, from stellar masses in gamma-ray bursts (GRB) and black-hole X-ray binaries (BHXRB) to supermassive active galactic nuclei (AGN). Accretion rates onto stellar mass black holes range over more than sixteen orders of magnitude, from the lower luminosity BHXRB to GRB. These enormous parameter ranges correspond to qualitative as well as quantitative differences in behavior. The fundamental questions involve the balance between nonequilibrium and thermalized plasmas. When energy fluxes exceed a critical value $\sim 10^{29}$ erg/cm$^2$s, as in GRB, a black-body equilibrium pair plasma forms. At the lower fluxes found in AGN, BHXRB and microquasars, accretion power electrodynamically accelerates a small number of very energetic particles, explaining their non-thermal spectra and the high energy gamma-ray emission of blazars. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays may be accelerated by massive black holes, otherwise undetectable, with very low thermal luminosities. New-born fast high-field pulsars may be in the black-body equilibrium regime, resembling SGR in permanent outburst. I also consider the question, significant for the acceleration of nonthermal particles in GRB outflows, of whether collisionless plasmas interpenetrate rather than forming hydrodynamic shocks, and propose this as an alternative to internal shock models of GRB. A new appendix attempts to explain why AGN are, proportionally, more efficient accelerators of energetic particles than stellar mass black holes.

astro-ph↗