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Magnetic reconnection: flares and coronal heating in Active Galactic Nuclei

T. Di Matteo
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Abstract

A magnetically-structured accretion disk corona, generated by buoyancy instability in the disk, can account for observations of flare--like events in Active Galactic Nuclei. We examine how Petschek magnetic reconnection, associated with MHD turbulence, can result in a violent release of energy and heat the magnetically closed regions of the corona up to canonical X-ray emitting temperatures. X-ray magnetic flares, the after effect of the energy released in slow shocks, can account for the bulk of the X-ray luminosity from Seyfert galaxies and consistently explain the observed short-timescale variability.

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T. Di Matteo. 1998-05-28. Magnetic reconnection: flares and coronal heating in Active Galactic Nuclei. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-8711.1998.01950.x

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