An X-Ray View of the Jet Cycle in the Radio-Loud Agn 3c120

Abstract

We present a study of the central engine in the broad-line radio galaxy 3C120 using a multi-epoch analysis of a deep XMM-Newton observation and two deep Suzaku pointings (in 2012). In order to place our spectral data into the context of the disk-disruption/jet-ejection cycles displayed by this object, we monitor the source in the UV/X-ray bands, and in the radio band. We find three statistically acceptable spectral models, a disk-reflection model, a jet-model and a jet+disk model. Despite being good descriptions of the data, the disk-reflection model violates the radio constraints on the inclination, and the jet-model has a fine-tuning problem, requiring a jet contribution exceeding that expected. Thus, we argue for a composite jet+disk model. Within the context of this model, we verify the basic predictions of the jet-cycle paradigm, finding a truncated/refilling disk during the Suzaku observations and a complete disk extending down to the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) during the XMM-Newton observation. The idea of a refilling disk is further supported by the detection of the ejection of a new jet knot approximately one month after the Suzaku pointings. We also discover a step-like event in one of the Suzaku pointings in which the soft band lags the hard band. We suggest that we are witnessing the propagation of a disturbance from the disk into the jet on a timescale set by the magnetic field.

X-Ray and Optical Correlation of Type I Seyfert NGC 3516 Studied With Suzaku and Japanese Ground-Based Telescopes

“…Furthermore, the inner part of the accretion disk can be made rather cool, becauseṀ can be reduced and F irr becomes much smaller than that with the assumption of H X = R. These would make the blackbody flux low enough to be consistent with the observed optical faintness. Such a lamppost-type corona with H X  R was suggested to form at the base of a jet moving away from an SMBH with relativistic speeds (e.g., Lohfink et al 2013;Wilkins & Gallo 2015). However, the value of H X ∼2 lt-day, or ∼500 R s , which is required to explain the present results, is orders of magnitude larger than that invoked in the previous studies.…”

STOCHASTIC MODELING OF THEFERMI/LAT γ-RAY BLAZAR VARIABILITY

“…However, blazar γ -ray emission is dominated by the processes related to the jet physics and beamed due to relativistic effects, unlike the X-ray coronal emission of the radio-quiet AGN and black hole binaries. Nevertheless, it could be envisaged that the accretion disk variability structure is carried outward in the jet, leading to the jet variability with properties inherited from the innermost radii of the accretion disk/X-ray corona system (e.g., Lohfink et al 2013). It would then be expected that the X-ray and Fermi/LAT short characteristic timescales of blazars were consistent with those found in X-rays in radio-quiet and radio-loud AGNs.…”

The Complete Ultraviolet Spectrum of the Archetypal “Wind-Dominated” Quasar MRK 231: Absorption and Emission From a High-Speed Dusty Nuclear Outflow

“…While the radio variability is attributed to strong Doppler boosting of self-absorbed synchrotron emission from a large injection of relativistic particles (Reynolds et al 2009, the X-ray variations are best modeled by changes in absorbing column densities and/or covering factor of the absorbing screen in front of the disk funnel (e.g., Piconcelli et al 2013;Teng et al 2014). The disk disruption/jet ejection model used to explain the anti-correlation between radio and X-ray emission in some jetted AGN (e.g., 3C 120; Lohfink et al 2013) therefore may not apply to Mrk231. The stability of the FUV-NUV continuum emission and NUV absorption troughs argue in favor of a thick and uniform BALR screen made of numerous clouds and filaments (cf.…”