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Correlated X-ray/ultraviolet/optical variability in NGC 6814

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Horne_2016_MNRAS_NGC6814_FinalPubVersion.pdf (1.786Mb)
Date
11/03/2016
Author
Troyer, Jon
Starkey, David
Cackett, Edward M.
Bentz, Misty C.
Goad, Michael R.
Horne, Keith
Seals, James E.
Keywords
Accretion, accretion discs
Galaxies: active
Galaxies: individual: NGC 6814
Galaxies: Seyfert
QB Astronomy
QC Physics
NDAS
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Abstract
We present results of a three-month combined X-ray/UV/optical monitoring campaign of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 6814. The object was monitored by Swift from June through August 2012 in the X-ray and UV bands and by the Liverpool Telescope from May through July 2012 in B and V. The light curves are variable and significantly correlated between wavebands. Using cross-correlation analysis, we compute the time lag between the X-ray and lower energy bands. These lags are thought to be associated with the light travel time between the central X-ray emitting region and areas further out on the accretion disc. The computed lags support a thermal reprocessing scenario in which X-ray photons heat the disc and are reprocessed into lower energy photons. Additionally, we fit the light curves using cream, a Markov Chain Monte Carlo code for a standard disc. The best-fitting standard disc model yields unreasonably high super-Eddington accretion rates. Assuming more reasonable accretion rates would result in significantly underpredicted lags. If the majority of the reprocessing originates in the disc, then this implies the UV/optical emitting regions of the accretion disc are farther out than predicted by the standard thin disc model. Accounting for contributions from broad emission lines reduces the lags in B and V by ∼25 per cent (less than the uncertainty in the lag measurements), though additional contamination from the Balmer continuum may also contribute to the larger than expected lags. This discrepancy between the predicted and measured interband delays is now becoming common in AGN where wavelength-dependent lags are measured.
Citation
Troyer , J , Starkey , D , Cackett , E M , Bentz , M C , Goad , M R , Horne , K & Seals , J E 2016 , ' Correlated X-ray/ultraviolet/optical variability in NGC 6814 ' , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , vol. 456 , no. 4 , pp. 4040-4050 . https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv2862
Publication
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv2862
ISSN
0035-8711
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. . This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv2862
Description
MCB and JES gratefully acknowledge support through NSF CAREER grant AST-1253702 to Georgia State University.The LT is operated on the island of La Palma by Liverpool John Moores University in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias with financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/8763

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