arXiv subjects

P. A. Evans

Publications and source records attributed to P. A. Evans.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Highly variable AGN from the XMM-Newton Slew Survey

We investigate the properties of a variability-selected complete sample of AGN in order to identify the mechanisms which cause large amplitude X-ray variability on time scales of years. A complete sample of 24 sources was constructed, from AGN which changed their soft X-ray luminosity by more than one order of magnitude over 5--20 years between ROSAT observations and the XMM Slew Survey. Follow-up observations were obtained with the Swift satellite. After removal of two probable spurious sources, we find that the sample has global properties which differ little from a non-varying control sample drawn from the wider XMM-Slew/ROSAT/Veron sample of all secure AGN detections. A wide range of AGN types are represented in the varying sample. The black hole mass distributions for the varying and non-varying sample are not significantly different. This suggests that long timescale variability is not strongly affected by black hole mass. There is marginal evidence that the variable sources have a lower redshift (2$σ$) and X-ray luminosity (1.7$σ$). Apart from two radio-loud sources, the sample have normal optical-X-ray ratios ($α_{\rm OX}$) when at their peak but are X-ray weak during their lowest flux measurements. Drawing on our results and other studies, we are able to identify a variety of variability mechanisms at play: tidal disruption events, jet activity, changes in absorption, thermal emission from the inner accretion disc, and variable accretion disc reflection. Little evidence for strong absorption is seen in the majority of the sample and single-component absorption can be excluded as the mechanism for most sources.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Swift follow-up of the Gravitational Wave source GW150914

The Advanced LIGO observatory recently reported the first direct detection of gravitational waves (GW) which triggered ALIGO on 2015 September 14. We report on observations taken with the Swift satellite two days after the trigger. No new X-ray, optical, UV or hard X-ray sources were detected in our observations, which were focussed on nearby galaxies in the GW error region and covered 4.7 square degrees (~2% of the probability in the rapidly-available GW error region; 0.3% of the probability from the final GW error region, which was produced several months after the trigger). We describe the rapid Swift response and automated analysis of the X-ray telescope and UV/Optical Telescope data, and note the importance to electromagnetic follow up of early notification of the progenitor details inferred from GW analysis.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. IV. Anomalous behavior of the broad ultraviolet emission lines in NGC 5548

During an intensive Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) UV monitoring campaign of the Seyfert~1 galaxy NGC 5548 performed from 2014 February to July, the normally highly correlated far-UV continuum and broad emission-line variations decorrelated for ~60 to 70 days, starting ~75 days after the first HST/COS observation. Following this anomalous state, the flux and variability of the broad emission lines returned to a more normal state. This transient behavior, characterised by significant deficits in flux and equivalent width of the strong broad UV emission lines, is the first of its kind to be unambiguously identified in an active galactic nucleus reverberation mapping campaign. The largest corresponding emission-line flux deficits occurred for the high-ionization collisionally excited lines, C IV and Si IV(+O IV]), and also He II(+O III]), while the anomaly in Ly-alpha was substantially smaller. This pattern of behavior indicates a depletion in the flux of photons with E_{\rm ph} > 54 eV, relative to those near 13.6 eV. We suggest two plausible mechanisms for the observed behavior: (i) temporary obscuration of the ionizing continuum incident upon BLR clouds by a moving veil of material lying between the inner accretion disk and inner BLR, perhaps resulting from an episodic ejection of material from the disk, or (ii) a temporary change in the intrinsic ionizing continuum spectral energy distribution resulting in a deficit of ionizing photons with energies > 54 eV, possibly due to a transient restructuring of the Comptonizing atmosphere above the disk. Current evidence appears to favor the latter explanation.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. III. Optical Continuum Emission and Broad-Band Time Delays in NGC 5548

We present ground-based optical photometric monitoring data for NGC 5548, part of an extended multi-wavelength reverberation mapping campaign. The light curves have nearly daily cadence from 2014 January to July in nine filters (\emph{BVRI} and \emph{ugriz}). Combined with ultraviolet data from the \emph{Hubble Space Telescope} and \emph{Swift}, we confirm significant time delays between the continuum bands as a function of wavelength, extending the wavelength coverage from 1158\,Å to the $z$ band ($\sim\!9160$\,Å). We find that the lags at wavelengths longer than the {\it V} band are equal to or greater than the lags of high-ionization-state emission lines (such as He\,{\sc ii}\,$λ1640$ and $λ4686$), suggesting that the continuum-emitting source is of a physical size comparable to the inner broad-line region (BLR). The trend of lag with wavelength is broadly consistent with the prediction for continuum reprocessing by an accretion disk with $τ\propto λ^{4/3}$. However, the lags also imply a disk radius that is 3 times larger than the prediction from standard thin-disk theory, assuming that the bolometric luminosity is 10\% of the Eddington luminosity ($L = 0.1L_{\rm Edd}$). Using optical spectra from the Large Binocular Telescope, we estimate the bias of the interband continuum lags due to BLR emission observed in the filters. We find that the bias for filters with high levels of BLR contamination ($\sim\! 20\%$) can be important for the shortest continuum lags, and likely has a significant impact on the {\it u} and {\it U} bands owing to Balmer continuum emission.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Optimisation of the Swift X-ray follow-up of Advanced LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave triggers in 2015--16

One of the most exciting near-term prospects in physics is the potential discovery of gravitational waves by the advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors. To maximise both the confidence of the detection and the science return, it is essential to identify an electromagnetic counterpart. This is not trivial, as the events are expected to be poorly localised, particularly in the near-term, with error regions covering hundreds or even thousands of square degrees. In this paper we discuss the prospects for finding an X-ray counterpart to a gravitational wave trigger with the Swift X-ray Telescope, using the assumption that the trigger is caused by a binary neutron star merger which also produces a short gamma-ray burst. We show that it is beneficial to target galaxies within the GW error region, highlighting the need for substantially complete galaxy catalogues out to distances of 300 Mpc. We also show that nearby, on-axis short GRBs are either extremely rare, or are systematically less luminous than those detected to date. We consider the prospects for detecting afterglow emission from an an off-axis GRB which triggered the GW facilities, finding that the detectability, and the best time to look, are strongly dependent on the characteristics of the burst such as circumburst density and our viewing angle.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Multiple tidal disruption flares in the active galaxy IC 3599

Tidal disruption events occur when a star passes too close to a massive black hole and it is totally ripped apart by tidal forces. It may also happen that the star is not close enough to the black hole to be totally disrupted and a less dramatic event might happen. If the stellar orbit is bound and highly eccentric, just like some stars in the centre of our own Galaxy, repeated flares should occur. When the star approaches the black hole tidal radius at periastron, matter might be stripped resulting in lower intensity outbursts recurring once every orbital period. We report on Swift observations of a recent bright flare from the galaxy IC 3599 hosting a middle-weight black hole, where a possible tidal disruption event was observed in the early 1990s. By light curve modelling and spectral fitting we can consistently account for the events as the non-disruptive tidal stripping of a star into a highly eccentric orbit. The recurrence time is 9.5 yr. IC 3599 is also known to host a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus. Tidal stripping from this star over several orbital passages might be able to spoon-feed also this activity.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. I. Ultraviolet Observations of the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 5548 with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on Hubble Space Telescope

We describe the first results from a six-month long reverberation-mapping experiment in the ultraviolet based on 170 observations of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. Significant correlated variability is found in the continuum and broad emission lines, with amplitudes ranging from ~30% to a factor of two in the emission lines and a factor of three in the continuum. The variations of all the strong emission lines lag behind those of the continuum, with He II 1640 lagging behind the continuum by ~2.5 days and Lyman alpha 1215, C IV 1550, and Si IV 1400 lagging by ~5-6 days. The relationship between the continuum and emission lines is complex. In particular, during the second half of the campaign, all emission-line lags increased by a factor of 1.3-2 and differences appear in the detailed structure of the continuum and emission-line light curves. Velocity-resolved cross-correlation analysis shows coherent structure in lag versus line-of-sight velocity for the emission lines; the high-velocity wings of C IV respond to continuum variations more rapidly than the line core, probably indicating higher velocity BLR clouds at smaller distances from the central engine. The velocity-dependent response of Lyman alpha, however, is more complex and will require further analysis.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. II. Swift and HST Reverberation Mapping of the Accretion Disk of NGC 5548

Recent intensive Swift monitoring of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 yielded 282 usable epochs over 125 days across six UV/optical bands and the X-rays. This is the densest extended AGN UV/optical continuum sampling ever obtained, with a mean sampling rate <0.5 day. Approximately daily HST UV sampling was also obtained. The UV/optical light curves show strong correlations (r_max = 0.57 - 0.90) and the clearest measurement to date of interband lags. These lags are well-fit by a τpropto λ^4/3 wavelength dependence, with a normalization that indicates an unexpectedly large disk radius of 0.35 +/- 0.05 lt-day at 1367 A, assuming a simple face-on model. The U-band shows a marginally larger lag than expected from the fit and surrounding bands, which could be due to Balmer continuum emission from the broad-line region as suggested by Korista and Goad. The UV/X-ray correlation is weaker (r_max < 0.45) and less consistent over time. This indicates that while Swift is beginning to measure UV/optical lags in general agreement with accretion disk theory (although the derived size is larger than predicted), the relationship with X-ray variability is less well understood. Combining this accretion disk size estimate with those from quasar microlensing studies suggests that AGN disk sizes scale approximately linearly with central black hole mass over a wide range of masses.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

The optical rebrightening of GRB100814A: an interplay of forward and reverse shocks?

We present a wide dataset of gamma-ray, X-ray, UVOIR, and radio observations of the Swift GRB100814A. At the end of the slow decline phase of the X-ray and optical afterglow, this burst shows a sudden and prominent rebrightening in the optical band only, followed by a fast decay in both bands. The optical rebrightening also shows chromatic evolution. Such a puzzling behaviour cannot be explained by a single component model. We discuss other possible interpretations, and we find that a model that incorporates a long-lived reverse shock and forward shock fits the temporal and spectral properties of GRB100814A the best.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Swift follow-up of IceCube triggers, and implications for the Advanced-LIGO era

Between 2011 March and 2014 August Swift responded to 20 triggers from the IceCube neutrino observatory, observing the IceCube 50% confidence error circle in X-rays, typically within 5 hours of the trigger. No confirmed counterpart has been detected. We describe the Swift follow up strategy and data analysis and present the results of the campaign. We discuss the challenges of distinguishing the X-ray counterpart to a neutrino trigger from serendipitous uncatalogued X-ray sources in the error circle, and consider the implications of our results for future strategies for multi-messenger astronomy, with particular reference to the follow up of gravitational wave triggers from the advanced-era detectors.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

X-ray and UV observations of V751 Cyg in an optical high state

Aims: The VY Scl system (anti-dwarf nova) V751 Cyg is examined following a claim of a super-soft spectrum in the optical low state. Methods: A serendipitous XMM-Newton X-ray observation and, 21 months later, Swift X-ray and UV observations, have provided the best such data on this source so far. These optical high-state datasets are used to study the flux and spectral variability of V751 Cyg. Results: Both the XMM-Newton and Swift data show evidence for modulation of the X-rays for the first time at the known 3.467 hr orbital period of V751 Cyg. In two Swift observations, taken ten days apart, the mean X-ray flux remained unchanged, while the UV source brightened by half a magnitude. The X-ray spectrum was not super-soft during the optical high state, but rather due to multi-temperature optically thin emission, with significant (10^{21-22} cm^-2) absorption, which was higher in the observation by Swift than that of XMM-Newton. The X-ray flux is harder at orbital minimum, suggesting that the modulation is related to absorption, perhaps linked to the azimuthally asymmetric wind absorption seen previously in H-alpha.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2014

GRB 130925A: an ultra-long Gamma Ray Burst with a dust-echo afterglow, and implications for the origin of the ultra-long GRBs

GRB 130925A was an unusual GRB, consisting of 3 distinct episodes of high-energy emission spanning $\sim$20 ks, making it a member of the proposed category of `ultra-long' bursts. It was also unusual in that its late-time X-ray emission observed by Swift was very soft, and showed a strong hard-to-soft spectral evolution with time. This evolution, rarely seen in GRB afterglows, can be well modelled as the dust-scattered echo of the prompt emission, with stringent limits on the contribution from the normal afterglow (i.e. external shock) emission. We consider and reject the possibility that GRB 130925A was some form of tidal disruption event, and instead show that if the circumburst density around GRB 130925A is low, the long duration of the burst and faint external shock emission are naturally explained. Indeed, we suggest that the ultra-long GRBs as a class can be explained as those with low circumburst densities, such that the deceleration time (at which point the material ejected from the nascent black hole is decelerated by the circumburst medium) is $\sim$20 ks, as opposed to a few hundred seconds for the normal long GRBs. The increased deceleration radius means that more of the ejected shells can interact before reaching the external shock, naturally explaining both the increased duration of GRB 130925A, the duration of its prompt pulses, and the fainter-than-normal afterglow.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

GRB 130427A: a Nearby Ordinary Monster

Long-duration Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are an extremely rare outcome of the collapse of massive stars, and are typically found in the distant Universe. Because of its intrinsic luminosity ($L\sim 3 \times 10^{53}$ erg s$^{-1}$) and its relative proximity ($z=0.34$), GRB 130427A was a unique event that reached the highest fluence observed in the gamma-ray band. Here we present a comprehensive multiwavelength view of GRB 130427A with Swift, the 2-m Liverpool and Faulkes telescopes and by other ground-based facilities, highlighting the evolution of the burst emission from the prompt to the afterglow phase. The properties of GRB 130427A are similar to those of the most luminous, high-redshift GRBs, suggesting that a common central engine is responsible for producing GRBs in both the contemporary and the early Universe and over the full range of GRB isotropic energies.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

The 100-month Swift catalogue of supergiant fast X-ray transients I. BAT on-board and transient monitor flares

We investigate the characteristics of bright flares for a sample of supergiant fast X-ray transients and their relation to the orbital phase. We have retrieved all Swift/BAT Transient Monitor light curves, and collected all detections in excess of $5σ$ from both daily- and orbital-averaged light curves in the time range of 2005-Feb-12 to 2013-May-31. We also considered all on-board detections as recorded in the same time span and selected those within 4 arcmin of each source in our sample and in excess of $5σ$. We present a catalogue of over a thousand BAT flares from 11 SFXTs, down to 15-150keV fluxes of $\sim6\times10^{-10}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ (daily timescale) and $\sim1.5\times10^{-9}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ (orbital timescale, averaging $\sim800$s) and spanning 100 months. The great majority of these flares are unpublished. This population is characterized by short (a few hundred seconds) and relatively bright (in excess of 100mCrab, 15-50keV) events. In the hard X-ray, these flares last in general much less than a day. Clustering of hard X-ray flares can be used to indirectly measure the length of an outburst, even when the low-level emission is not detected. We construct the distributions of flares, of their significance (in terms of sigma) and their flux as a function of orbital phase, to infer the properties of these binary systems. In particular, we observe a trend of clustering of flares at some phases as $P_{\rm orb}$ increases, as consistent with a progression from tight, circular or mildly eccentric orbits at short periods, to wider and more eccentric orbits at longer orbital periods. Finally, we estimate the expected number of flares for a given source for our limiting flux and provide the recipe for calculating them for the limiting flux of future hard X-ray observatories. (Abridged).

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2013

1SXPS: A deep Swift X-ray Telescope point source catalog with light curves and spectra

We present the 1SXPS (Swift-XRT Point Source) catalog of 151,524 X-ray point-sources detected by the Swift-XRT in 8 years of operation. The catalog covers 1905 square degrees distributed approximately uniformly on the sky. We analyze the data in two ways. First we consider all observations individually, for which we have a typical sensitivity of ~3e-13 erg/cm2/s (0.3--10 keV). Then we co-add all data covering the same location on the sky: these images have a typical sensitivity of ~9e-14 erg/cm2/s (0.3--10 keV). Our sky coverage is nearly 2.5 times that of 3XMM-DR4, although the catalog is a factor of ~1.5 less sensitive. The median position error is 5.5" (90% confidence), including systematics. Our source detection method improves on that used in previous XRT catalogs and we report >68,000 new X-ray sources. The goals and observing strategy of the Swift satellite allow us to probe source variability on multiple timescales, and we find ~30,000 variable objects in our catalog. For every source we give positions, fluxes, time series (in four energy bands and two hardness ratios), estimates of the spectral properties, spectra and spectral fits for the brightest sources, and variability probabilities in multiple energy bands and timescales.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2013

Are gamma-ray bursts the same at high redshift and low redshift?

The majority of Swift gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed at z > 6 have prompt durations of T90 < 30s, which, at first sight, is surprising given that cosmological time-dilation means this corresponds to < 5s in their rest frames. We have tested whether these high-redshift GRBs are consistent with being drawn from the same population as those observed at low-redshift by comparing them to an artificially red-shifted sample of 114 z < 4 bursts. This is accomplished using two methods to produce realistic high-z simulations of light curves based on the observed characteristics of the low-z sample. In Method 1 we use the Swift/BAT data directly, taking the photons detected in the harder bands to predict what would be seen in the softest energy band if the burst were seen at higher-z. In Method 2 we fit the light curves with a model, and use that to extrapolate the expected behaviour over the whole BAT energy range at any redshift. Based on the results of Method 2, a K-S test of their durations finds a ~1% probability that the high-z GRB sample is drawn from the same population as the bright low-z sample. Although apparently marginally significant, we must bear in mind that this test was partially a posteriori, since the rest-frame short durations of several high-z bursts motivated the study in the first instance.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2013

Are GRBs the same at high and low redshift?

Due to their highly luminous nature, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are useful tools in studying the early Universe (up to z = 10). We consider whether the available subset of Swift high redshift GRBs are unusual when compared to analogous simulations of a bright low redshift sample. By simulating data from the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT; Barthelmy et al. 2005) the light curves of these bright bursts are obtained over an extensive range of redshifts, revealing complicated evolution in properties of the prompt emission such as T90.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2013

Swift Discovery of a New Soft Gamma Repeater, SGR J1745-29, near Sagittarius A*

Starting in 2013 February, Swift has been performing short daily monitoring observations of the G2 gas cloud near Sgr A* with the X-Ray Telescope to determine whether the cloud interaction leads to an increase in the flux from the Galactic center. On 2013 April 24 Swift detected an order of magnitude rise in the X-ray flux from the region near Sgr A*. Initially thought to be a flare from Sgr A*, detection of a short hard X-ray burst from the same region by the Burst Alert Telescope suggested that the flare was from an unresolved new Soft Gamma Repeater, SGR J1745-29. Here we present the discovery of SGR J1745-29 by Swift, including analysis of data before, during, and after the burst. We find that the spectrum in the 0.3-10 keV range is well fit by an absorbed blackbody model with kTBB ~ 1 keV and absorption consistent with previously measured values from the quiescent emission from Sgr A*, strongly suggesting that this source is at a similar distance. Only one SGR burst has been detected so far from the new source, and the persistent light curve shows little evidence of decay in approximately 2 weeks of monitoring after outburst. We discuss this light curve trend and compare it with those of other well covered SGR outbursts. We suggest that SGR J1745-29 belongs to an emerging subclass of magnetars characterized by low burst rates and prolonged steady X-ray emission 1-2 weeks after outburst onset.

astro-ph.HE↗