Swift intensive accretion disk reverberation mapping of four AGN yielded light curves sampled ∼200-350 times in 0.3-10 keV X-ray and six UV/optical bands. Uniform reduction and cross-correlation analysis of these datasets yields three main results: (1) The X-ray/UV correlations are much weaker than those within the UV/optical, posing severe problems for the lamp-post reprocessing model in which variations in a central X-ray corona drive and power those in the surrounding accretion disk. (2) The UV/optical interband lags are generally consistent with τ ∝ λ 4/3 as predicted by the centrally illuminated thin accretion disk model. While the average interband lags are somewhat larger than predicted, these results alone are not inconsistent with the thin disk model given the large systematic uncertainties involved.(3) The one exception is the U band lags, which are on average a factor of ∼2.2 larger than predicted from the surrounding band data and fits. This excess appears to be due to diffuse continuum emission from the broad-line region (BLR). The precise mixing of disk and BLR components cannot be determined from these data alone. The lags in different 2 Edelson et al.AGN appear to scale with mass or luminosity. We also find that there are systematic differences between the uncertainties derived by JAVELIN vs. more standard lag measurement techniques, with JAVELIN reporting smaller uncertainties by a factor of 2.5 on average. In order to be conservative only standard techniques were used in the analyses reported herein.

We present results of time-series analysis of the first year of the Fairall 9 intensive disc-reverberation campaign. We used Swift and the Las Cumbres Observatory global telescope network to continuously monitor Fairall 9 from X-rays to near-infrared at a daily to sub-daily cadence. The cross-correlation function between bands provides evidence for a lag spectrum consistent with the τ∝λ4/3 scaling expected for an optically thick, geometrically thin blackbody accretion disc. Decomposing the flux into constant and variable components, the variable component’s spectral energy distribution is slightly steeper than the standard accretion disc prediction. We find evidence at the Balmer edge in both the lag and flux spectra for an additional bound-free continuum contribution that may arise from reprocessing in the broad-line region. The inferred driving light curve suggests two distinct components, a rapidly variable (<4 days) component arising from X-ray reprocessing, and a more slowly varying (>100 days) component with an opposite lag to the reverberation signal.

Aims. This study of SDSS J080434.20+510349.2 is primarily concerned with the double-hump shape in the light curve and its connection with the accretion disk in this bounce-back system. Methods. Time-resolved photometric and spectroscopic observations were obtained to analyze the behavior of the system between superoutbursts. A qualitative geometric model of a binary system containing a disk with two outer annuli spiral density waves was applied to explain the light curve and the Doppler tomography. Results. Observations were carried out during 2008−2009, after the object's magnitude decreased to V ∼ 17.7 ± 0.1 from the March 2006 eruption. The light curve clearly shows a sinusoid-like variability with a 0.07 mag amplitude and a 42.48 min periodicity, which is half of the orbital period of the system. In September 2010, the system underwent yet another superoutburst and returned to its quiescent level by the beginning of 2012. This light curve once again showed a double-hump-shape, but with a significantly smaller (∼0.01 mag) amplitude. Other types of variability like a "mini-outburst" or SDSS1238-like features were not detected. Doppler tomograms, obtained from spectroscopic data during the same period of time, show a large accretion disk with uneven brightness, implying the presence of spiral waves. Conclusions. We constructed a geometric model of a bounce-back system containing two spiral density waves in the outer annuli of the disk to reproduce the observed light curves. The Doppler tomograms and the double-hump-shape light curves in quiescence can be explained by a model system containing a massive ≥0.7 M white dwarf with a surface temperature of ∼12 000 K, a late-type brown dwarf, and an accretion disk with two outer annuli spirals. According to this model, the accretion disk should be large, extending to the 2:1 resonance radius, and cool (∼2500 K). The inner parts of the disk should be optically thin in the continuum or totally void.

We derive limits on any electromagnetic counterpart to the compact binary merger S190814bv, whose parameters are consistent with the merger of a black hole and a neutron star. We present observations with the new wide-field optical imager DDOTI dand also consider Swift/BAT observations reported by Palmer et al. (2019). We show that Swift/BAT would have detected a counterpart with similar properties to a typical on-axis short GRB at the 98 per cent confidence level, whereas our DDOTI observations only rule out such a counterpart at the 27 per cent confidence level. Neither have sufficient sensitivity to rule out an off-axis counterpart like GW 170817. We compare the efficiency of Swift/BAT and DDOTI for future observations, and show that DDOTI is likely to be about twice as efficient as Swift/BAT for off-axis events up to about 100 Mpc.