Open AccessTesting a model of variability of X‐ray reprocessing features in active galactic nuclei
Author(s) -
Życki Piotr T.,
Różańska Agata
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04398.x
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , active galactic nucleus , galaxy , x ray , ionization , amplitude , plasma , accretion (finance) , observable , line (geometry) , accretion disc , emission spectrum , instability , astronomy , spectral line , ion , optics , geometry , nuclear physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , mechanics
A number of recent results from X‐ray observations of active galactic nuclei involving the Fe K α line (reduction of line variability compared with the X‐ray continuum variability, the X‐ray ‘Baldwin effect’) were attributed to the presence of a hot, ionized skin of an accretion disc, suppressing emission of the line. The ionized skin appears as a result of the thermal instability of X‐ray irradiated plasma. We test this hypothesis by computing the Thomson thickness of the hot skin on top of the αP tot Shakura–Sunyaev disc, by simultaneously solving the vertical structure of both the hot skin and the disc. We then compute a number of relations between observable quantities, e.g. the hard X‐ray flux, amplitude of the observed reprocessed component, relativistic smearing of the K α line and rms variability of the hard X‐rays. These relations can be compared with present and future observations. We point out that this mechanism is unlikely to explain the behaviour of the X‐ray source in MCG–6‐30‐15, where there are a number of arguments against the existence of a thick hot skin, but it can work for some other Seyfert 1 galaxies.