Misc,

The remarkable X-ray variability of IRAS 13224&\#45;&\#45;3809 I: the variability process

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and .
(Mar 28, 2018)

Abstract

We present a detailed X-ray timing analysis of the highly variable NLS1 galaxy, IRAS 13224--3809. The source was recently monitored for 1.5 Ms with XMM-Newton which, combined with 500 ks archival data, makes this the best studied NLS1 galaxy in X-rays to date. We apply a full suite of timing methods in both the time- and Fourier-domain in order to understand the underlying variability process. The source flux is not distributed lognormally, as would be expected for accreting sources. The first non-linear rms-flux relation for any accreting source in any waveband is found, with \$rms flux^2/3\$. The light curves exhibit strong non-stationarity, in addition to that caused by the rms-flux relation, and are fractionally more variable at lower source flux. The power spectrum is estimated down to \$\sim 10^-7\$ Hz and consists of multiple peaked components: a low-frequency break at \$10^-5\$ Hz, with slope \$< 1\$ down to low frequencies; an additional component breaking at \$10^-3\$ Hz. Using the high-frequency break we estimate the black hole mass \$M\_BH = 0.5-2 10^6 M\_ødot\$, and mass accretion rate in Eddington units, \$m\_Edd 1\$. The non-stationarity is manifest in the PSD with the low-frequency break moving to higher frequencies with decreasing source flux. We also detect a narrow coherent feature in the soft band PSD at \$0.7\$ mHz, modelled with a Lorentzian the feature has \$Q 8\$ and an \$rms 3\$ \%. We discuss the implication of these results for accretion of matter onto black holes.

Tags

Users

  • @ericblackman

Comments and Reviews