Dust Reverberation Mapping and Light-Curve Modelling of Zw229-015
E. Guise, S. F. Hönig, V. Gorjian, A. J. Barth, T. Almeyda, L. Pei, S. B. Cenko, R. Edelson, A. V. Filippenko, M. D. Joner, C. D. Laney, W. Li, M. A. Malkan, M. L. Nguyen, W. Zheng
备注：
32 pages, 32 Figures, 7 Tables; Accepted for publication in MNRAS
Multiwavelength variability studies of active galactic nuclei (AGN) can be used to probe their inner regions which are not directly resolvable. Dust reverberation mapping (DRM) estimates the size of the dust emitting region by measuring the delays between the infrared (IR) response to variability in the optical light curves. We measure DRM lags of Zw229-015 between optical ground-based and Kepler light curves and concurrent IR Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 $μ$m light curves from 2010-2015, finding an overall mean rest-frame lag of 18.3 $\pm$ 4.5 days. Each combination of optical and IR light curve returns lags that are consistent with each other within 1$σ$, which implies that the different wavelengths are dominated by the same hot dust emission. The lags measured for Zw229-015 are found to be consistently smaller than predictions using the lag-luminosity relationship. Also, the overall IR response to the optical emission actually depends on the geometry and structure of the dust emitting region as well, so we use Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) modelling to simulate the dust distribution to further estimate these structural and geometrical properties. We find that a large increase in flux between the 2011-2012 observation seasons, which is more dramatic in the IR light curve, is not well simulated by a single dust component. When excluding this increase in flux, the modelling consistently suggests that the dust is distributed in an extended flat disk, and finds a mean inclination angle of 49$^{+3}_{-13}$ degrees.
A hot, dusty torus located around the outer edge of the broad-line region of AGNs is a fundamental ingredient in unified AGN models. While the existence of circumnuclear dust around AGNs at pc-scale radii is now widely accepted, questions about the origin, evolution and long-term stability of these dust tori remain unsettled.\\ We used reverberation mapping of the hot circumnuclear dust in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4151, to monitor its temperature and reverberation lag as a function of the varying accretion disk brightness. We carried out multiband, multiepoch photometric observations of the nu…
We present the results of a dust reverberation survey for 17 nearby Seyfert 1 galaxies, which provides the largest homogeneous data collection for the radius of the innermost dust torus. A delayed response of the K-band light curve after the V-band light curve was found for all targets, and 49 measurements of lag times between the flux variation of the dust emission in the K band and that of the optical continuum emission in the V band were obtained. The lag times strongly correlated with the optical luminosity in the luminosity range of M_V=-16 to -22 mag, and the regression analysis was perf…
The size and structure of the dusty circumnuclear torus in active galactic nuclei (AGN) can be investigated by analyzing the temporal response of the torus's infrared (IR) dust emission to variations in the AGN ultraviolet/optical luminosity. This method, reverberation mapping, is applicable over a wide redshift range, but the IR response is sensitive to several poorly constrained variables relating to the dust distribution and its illumination, complicating the interpretation of measured reverberation lags. We have used an enhanced version of our torus reverberation mapping code (TORMAC) to c…
We have recently initiated the first spectroscopic dust reverberation programme on active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the near-infrared. Spectroscopy enables measurement of dust properties, such as flux, temperature and covering factor, with higher precision than photometry. In particular, it enables measurement of both luminosity-based dust radii and dust response times. Here we report results from a one-year campaign on NGC 5548. The hot dust responds to changes in the irradiating flux with a lag time of ~70 light-days, similar to what was previously found in photometric reverberation campaigns…
The obscuring circumnuclear torus of dusty molecular gas is one of the major components of active galactic nuclei (AGN). The torus can be studied by analyzing the time response of its infrared (IR) dust emission to variations in the AGN continuum luminosity, a technique known as reverberation mapping. The IR response is the convolution of the AGN ultraviolet/optical light curve with a transfer function that contains information about the size, geometry, and structure of the torus. Here, we describe a new computer model that simulates the reverberation response of a clumpy torus. Given an input…
We monitored the z=0.158 quasar 3C273 between 2015 and 2019 in the optical (BVrz) and near-infrared (JHK) with the aim to perform dust reverberation mapping. Accounting for host galaxy and accretion disk contributions, we obtained pure dust light curves in JHK. Cross correlations between the V-band and the dust light curves yield an average rest-frame delay for the hot dust of tau_cent ~ 410 days. This is a factor 2 shorter than expected from the the dust ring radius R_x ~ 900 light days reported from interferometric studies. The dust covering factor (CF) is about 8%, much smaller than predict…
We probe the dusty environment of the archetypical type-1 AGN in NGC 4151 with comprehensive IR reverberation mapping over several decades, in J ($\sim1.22μ$m), H ($\sim1.63μ$m), K ($\sim2.19μ$m), L ($\sim3.45μ$m) and N-band ($\sim10.6μm$), plus multiple measurements at 20--40 $μ$m. At 1--4$μ$m, the hot dust reverberation signals come from two distinct dust populations at separate radii ($\sim$0.033 pc and $\sim$0.076 pc), with temperatures of $\sim$1500--2500 K and $\sim$900--1000 K, consistent with the expected properties of sublimating graphite and silicate dust grains. The domination of th…
The dust reverberation mapping is one of powerful methods to investigate the structure of the dusty tori in AGNs, and it has been performed on more than a hundred type 1 AGNs. However, no clear results have been reported on type 2 AGNs because their strong optical-UV extinction completely hides their accretion disc emission. Here we focus on an X-ray-bright type 2 AGN, NGC 2110, and utilize 2-20 keV X-ray variation monitored by MAXI to trace disc emission, instead of optical-UV variation. Comparing it with light curves in the WISE infrared (IR) W1 band ($λ= 3.4$ $μ$m) and W2 band ($λ= 4.6$ $μ$…
The central engines of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) are powered by accreting supermassive black holes, and while AGNs are known to play an important role in galaxy evolution, the key physical processes occur on scales that are too small to be resolved spatially (aside from a few exceptional cases). Reverberation mapping is a powerful technique that overcomes this limitation by using echoes of light to determine the geometry and kinematics of the central regions. Variable ionizing radiation from close to the black hole drives correlated variability in surrounding gas/dust, but with a time dela…
We present the results of a dust-reverberation survey of quasars at redshifts z<0.6. We found a delayed response of the K-band flux variation after the optical flux variation in 25 out of 31 targets, and obtained the lag time between them for 22 targets. Combined with the results for nearby Seyfert galaxies, we provide the largest homogeneous collection of K-band dust-reverberation data for 36 type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs). This doubles the sample and includes the most distant AGN and the largest lag so far measured. We estimated the optical luminosity of the AGN component of each targe…
We present results from a fifteen-month campaign of high-cadence (~ 3 days) mid-infrared Spitzer and optical (B and V ) monitoring of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 6418, with the objective of determining the characteristic size of the dusty torus in this active galactic nucleus (AGN). We find that the 3.6 $μ$m and 4.5 $μ$m flux variations lag behind those of the optical continuum by $37.2^{+2.4}_{-2.2}$ days and $47.1^{+3.1}_{-3.1}$ days, respectively. We report a cross-correlation time lag between the 4.5 $μ$m and 3.6 $μ$m flux of $13.9^{+0.5}_{-0.1}$ days. The lags indicate that the dust emitting…
Using robotic telescopes of the Universitatssternwarte Bochum near Cerro Armazones in Chile, we monitored the z=0.0377 Seyfert 1 galaxy WPVS48 (2MASX J09594263-3112581) in the optical (B and R) and near-infrared (NIR, J and Ks) with a cadence of two days. The light curves show unprecedented variability details. The NIR variation features of WPVS48 are consistent with the corresponding optical variations, but the features appear sharper in the NIR than in the optical, suggesting that the optical photons undergo multiple scatterings. The J and Ks emission, tracing the hot (1600 K) dust echo, lag…
The continued operation of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) combined with several ground-based optical transient surveys (e.g., CRTS, ASAS-SN and PTF) offer an unprecedented opportunity to explore the dust structures in luminous AGNs. We use these data for a mid-IR dust reverberation mapping (RM) study of 87 archetypal Palomar-Green quasars at $z\lesssim0.5$. To cope with various contaminations of the photometry data and the sparse time sampling of the light curves, procedures to combine these datasets and retrieve the dust RM signals have been developed. We find $\sim$70% of the…
The time lag between optical and near-infrared (IR) flux variability can be taken as a means to determine the sublimation radius of the dusty "torus" around supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN). I will show that data from big optical survey telescopes, e.g. the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), can be used to measure dust sublimation radii as well. The method makes use of the fact that the Wien tail of the hot dust emission reaches into the optical and can be reliably recovered with high-quality photometry. Simulations show that dust sublimation radii for a large samp…
We report results of the dust reverberation mapping (DRM) on the Seyfert 1 galaxy Z229-15 at z = 0.0273. Quasi-simultaneous photometric observations for a total of 48 epochs were acquired during the period 2017 July to 2018 December in B, V, J, H and Ks bands. The calculated spectral index (α) between B and V bands for each epoch was used to correct for the accretion disk (AD) component present in the infrared light curves. The observed α ranges between -0.99 and 1.03. Using cross correlation function analysis we found significant time delays between the optical V and the AD corrected J, H and…
The size of the dust torus in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and their high-luminosity counterparts, quasars, can be inferred from the time delay between UV/optical accretion disk continuum variability and the response in the mid-infrared (MIR) torus emission. This dust reverberation mapping (RM) technique has been successfully applied to $\sim 70$ $z\lesssim 0.3$ AGN and quasars. Here we present first results of our dust RM program for distant quasars covered in the SDSS Stripe 82 region combining $\sim 20$-yr ground-based optical light curves with 10-yr MIR light curves from the WISE satellite…
The 2MIG isolated AGNs. 3. Optical--IR variability and dust reverberation in the NLSy1 galaxies Mrk~42 and Mrk~493
Main Astronomical Observatory of the NAS of Ukraine（乌克兰国家科学院主天文台）；International Center for Astronomical, Medical and Ecological Research (ICAMER)（国际天文、医学和生态研究中心）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias（加那利群岛天体物理研究所）；Universidad de la Laguna（拉古纳大学）
In Yoshii et al. (2014), we described a new method for measuring extragalactic distances based on dust reverberation in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and we validated our new method with Cepheid variable stars. In this paper, we validate our new method with Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) which occurred in two of the AGN host galaxies during our AGN monitoring program: SN 2004bd in NGC 3786 and SN 2008ec in NGC 7469. Their multicolor light curves were observed and analyzed using two widely accepted methods for measuring SN distances, and the distance moduli derived are $μ=33.47\pm 0.15$ for SN 20…
X-ray disc reverberation modelling of the X-ray/UV/optical spectral/timing properties of Fairall 9
University of Crete（克里特大学）；Università Federico II（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学）；Institute of Astrophysics, FORTH（FORTH天体物理研究所）；Department of Physics and Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics, University of Crete（克里特大学物理系与理论与计算物理研究所）；MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院卡弗里天体物理学与空间研究研究所）；California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）；Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences（科学院天文研究所）
Reverberation mapping (RM) is an efficient method to investigate the physical sizes of the broad line region (BLR) and dusty torus in an active galactic nucleus (AGN). The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission will provide multi-epoch spectroscopic data at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. These data can be used for RM experiments for bright AGNs. We present results of a feasibility test using SPHEREx data in the SPHEREx deep regions for the torus RM measurements. We investigate the physical properties of bright AGNs …
According to the standard paradigm, the strong and compact luminosity of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is due to multi-temperature black body emission originating from an accretion disk formed around a supermassive black hole. This central engine is thought to be surrounded by a dusty region along the equatorial plane and by ionized winds along the poles. The innermost regions cannot yet be resolved neither in the optical nor in the infrared and it is fair to say that we still lack a satisfactory understanding of the physical processes, geometry and composition of the central (sub-parsec) compo…
The 2MIG isolated AGNs -- 4. Linking hot-dust reverberation to spectroscopically predicted BLR scales in IC~5287 and Mrk~845
Main Astronomical Observatory of the NAS of Ukraine（乌克兰国家科学院主天文台）；International Centre for Astronomical, Medical and Ecological Research (ICAMER)（国际天体医学与生态研究中心）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias（加那利群岛天体物理研究所）；Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de la Laguna（拉古纳大学天体物理学系）
Time-Domain Dust Astrophysics. I. Polarization Flares, Polarization-Angle Reverberation, and Fossil Imprints in Supernova-Illuminated Clouds
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute（韩国天文与空间科学研究院）；Department of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology（科学技术大学天文与空间科学系）
Here we give an observational method for measurements of the equatorial scattering region radius using variability in the polarized broad lines in Type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs). The polarization in broad lines of Type 1 AGNs is mostly caused by equatorial scattering, where specific features allow one to separate its contribution from the total polarized flux. We propose to monitor variability in the polarized line flux and find the time lag between the nonpolarized continuum and polarized broad line variability. The distance to the scattering screen can then be determined from the time …
At the Universitaetssternwarte Bochum near Cerro Armazones we have monitored the Seyfert-1 galaxy 3C 120 between September 2014 and March 2015 in BVRI and a narrow band filter covering the redshifted H alpha line; in addition we obtained a single con-temporary spectrum with FAST at Mt. Hopkins. Compared to earlier epochs 3C 120 is about a factor of three brighter, allowing us to study the shape of the broad line region (BLR) and the dust torus in a high luminosity phase. The analysis of the light curves yields that the dust echo is rather sharp and symmetric in contrast to the more complex bro…
Here we introduce the interstellar dust modelling framework THEMIS (The Heterogeneous dust Evolution Model for Interstellar Solids), which takes a global view of dust and its evolution in response to the local conditions in interstellar media. This approach is built upon a core model that was developed to explain the dust extinction and emission in the diffuse interstellar medium. The model was then further developed to self-consistently include the effects of dust evolution in the transition to denser regions. The THEMIS approach is under continuous development and currently we are extending …
X-ray reverberation echoes are assumed to be produced in the strongly distorted spacetime around accreting supermassive black holes. This signal allows us to spatially map the geometry of the inner accretion flow - a region which cannot yet be spatially resolved by any telescope - and provides a direct measure of the black hole mass and spin. The reverberation timescale is set by the light travel path between the direct emission from a hot X-ray corona and the reprocessed emission from the inner edge of the accretion disc. However, there is an inherent degeneracy in the reverberation signal be…
Interstellar dust grains do not have a single well-defined origin. Stars are demonstrably dust producers, but also efficient destroyers of cosmic dust. Dust destruction in the ISM is believed to be the result of SN shocks hitting the ambient ISM gas (and dust) and lead to an increased rate of ion sputtering, which reduces the dust mass. Grains located in cold molecular clouds can on the other hand grow by condensation, thus providing a replenishment mechanism or even a dominant channel of dust formation. In dense environments grains may coagulate and form large composite grains and aggregates …
The construction of viable and physically-realistic interstellar dust models is only possible if the constraints imposed by laboratory data on interstellar dust analogue materials are respected and used within a meaningful theoretical framework. These physical dust models can then be directly compared to observations without the need for any tuning to fit the observations. Such models will generally fail to achieve the excellent fits to observations that empirical models are able to achieve. However, the physically-realistic approach will necessarily lead to a deeper insight and a fuller under…
We investigate the correlation between infrared (JHKL) and optical (B) fluxes of the variable nucleus of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 using partially published data for the last 6 years (2008-2013.). Here we are using the same data as in Oknyansky et al. (2014), but include also optical (B) data from Guo et al. We find that the lag of flux in all the infrared bands is the same, 40 +- 6 days, to within the measurement accuracy. Variability in the J and K bands is not quite simultaneous, perhaps due to the differing contributions of the accretion disk in these bands. The lag found for the K band …
We present a novel, purely geometric probe of cosmology based on measurements of differential time delays between images of strongly lensed quasars due to finite source effects. Our approach is solely dependent on cosmology via a ratio of angular diameter distances, the image separation, and the source size. It thereby entirely avoids the challenges of lens modelling that conventionally limit time delay cosmography, and instead entails the lensed reverberation mapping of the quasar Broad Line Region. We demonstrate that differential time delays are measurable with short cadence spectroscopic m…
Reverberation mapping probes the structure of the broad emission-line region (BLR) in active galactic nuclei (AGN). The kinematics of the BLR gas can be used to measure the mass of the central supermassive black hole. The main uncertainty affecting black hole mass determinations is the structure of the BLR. We present a new method for reverberation mapping based on regularized linear inversion (RLI) that includes modelling of the AGN continuum light curves. This enables fast calculation of velocity-resolved response maps to constrain BLR structure. RLI allows for negative response, such as whe…
Cosmic dust grains are one of the fundamental ingredients of the interstellar medium (ISM). In spite of their small contribution to the total mass budget, dust grains play a significant role in the physical and chemical evolution of galaxies. Over the past decades, a plethora of multi-wavelength data, from UV to far-infrared, has increased substantially our knowledge on the dust properties of nearby galaxies. Nevertheless, one regime of the spectrum, the mm range, remains relatively unexplored. Thanks to the new, high-resolution data in the mm range observed with the NIKA2 instrument and our r…
In this work, we characterise the contributions from both ongoing star formation and the ambient radiation field in Local Group galaxy M33, as well as estimate the scale of the local dust-energy balance (i.e. the scale at which the dust is re-emitting starlight generated in that same region) in this galaxy through high-resolution radiative transfer (RT) modelling, with defined stellar and dust geometries. We have characterised the spectral energy distribution (SED) of M33 from UV to sub-mm wavelengths, at a spatial scale of 100 pc. We constructed input maps of the various stellar and dust geom…
A large fraction of early-type galaxies (ETGs) host prominent dust features, and central dust rings are arguably the most interesting among them. We present here `Lord Of The Rings' (LOTR), a new methodology which allows to integrate the extinction by dust rings in a 2D fitting modelling of the surface brightness distribution. Our pipeline acts in two steps, first using the surface fitting software GALFIT to determine the unabsorbed stellar emission, and then adopting the radiative transfer code SKIRT to apply dust extinction. We apply our technique to NGC 4552 and NGC 4494, two nearby ETGs. W…
We present the results of a three years monitoring campaigns of the $z = 0.024$ type-1 active galactic nucleus (AGN) PGC50427. Through the use of Photometric Reverberation Mapping with broad and narrow band filters, we determine the size of the broad-line emitting region by measuring the time delay between the variability of the continuum and the H$α$ emission line. The H$α$ emission line responds to blue continuum variations with an average rest frame lag of $19.0 \pm 1.23$ days. Using single epoch spectroscopy we determined a broad-line H$α$ velocity width of 1020 km s$^{-1}$ and in combinat…
We have studied the diffuse radiation in the surroundings of M42 using photometric data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) in the far-ultraviolet (FUV) and infrared observations of the AKARI space telescope. The main source of the FUV diffuse emission is the starlight from the Trapezium stars scattered by dust in front of the nebula. We initially compare the diffuse FUV with the far-infrared (FIR) observations at the same locations. The FUV-IR correlations enable us to determine the type of dust contributing to this emission. We then use an existing model for studying the FUV dust scat…
We examine the long-term optical/near-infrared (NIR) flux variability of a "changing-look" active galactic nucleus (AGN) Mrk 590 between 1998 and 2007. Multi-band multi-epoch optical/NIR photometry data from the SDSS Stripe 82 database and the Multicolor Active Galactic Nuclei Monitoring (MAGNUM) project reveal that Mrk 590 experienced a sudden luminosity decrease during the period from 2000 to 2001. Detection of dust reverberation lag signals between $V$- and $K$-band light curves obtained by the MAGNUM project during the faint state in $2003-2007$ suggests that the dust torus innermost radiu…
We present a method to simultaneously model the dust far-infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) and the total infrared $-$ carbon monoxide (CO) integrated intensity $(S_{\rm IR}-I_{\rm CO})$ relationship. The modelling employs a hierarchical Bayesian (HB) technique to estimate the dust surface density, temperature ($T_{\rm eff}$), and spectral index at each pixel from the observed far-infrared (FIR) maps. Additionally, given the corresponding CO map, the method simultaneously estimates the slope and intercept between the FIR and CO intensities, which are global properties of the observed …
In light of the recent detection of direct evidence for the formation of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities in the Orion nebula, we expand upon previous modelling efforts by numerically simulating the shear-flow driven gas and dust dynamics in locations where the H$_{II}$ region and the molecular cloud interact. We aim to directly confront the simulation results with the infrared observations. Methods: To numerically model the onset and full nonlinear development of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability we take the setup proposed to interpret the observations, and adjust it to a full 3D hydrodynamical …
Context. The observed cloudshine and coreshine (C-shine) have been explained in terms of grain growth leading to enhanced scatter- ing from clouds in the J, H and K photometric bands and the Spitzer IRAC 3.6 and 4.5 μm bands. Aims. Using our global dust modelling approach THEMIS (The Heterogeneous dust Evolution Model at the IaS) we explore the effects of dust evolution in dense clouds, through aliphatic-rich carbonaceous mantle formation and grain-grain coagulation. Methods. We model the effects of wide band gap a-C:H mantle formation and the low-level aggregation of diffuse interstellar medi…
We implement a detailed dust model into the L-Galaxies semi-analytical model which includes: injection of dust by type II and type Ia supernovae (SNe) and AGB stars; grain growth in molecular clouds; and destruction due to supernova-induced shocks, star formation, and reheating. Our grain growth model follows the dust content in molecular clouds and the inter-cloud medium separately, and allows growth only on pre-existing dust grains. At early times, this can make a significant difference to the dust growth rate. Above $z\sim8$, type II SNe are the primary source of dust, whereas below $z\sim8…
Modelling the evolution and influence of dust in cosmological simulations that include the cold phase of the interstellar medium
University of Portsmouth（朴茨茅斯大学）；Leiden University（莱顿大学）；University of Vienna（维也纳大学）；University of Hull（赫尔大学）；Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Leiden University（莱顿大学洛伦兹理论物理研究所）；University of Milano-Bicocca（米兰比可卡大学）；Durham University（杜伦大学）
The determination of the size and geometry of the broad line region (BLR) in active galactic nuclei is one of the major ingredients for determining the mass of the accreting black hole. This can be done by determining the delay between the optical continuum and the flux reprocessed by the BLR, in particular via the emission lines. We propose here that the delay between polarized and unpolarized light can also be used in much the same way to constrain the size of the BLR; we check that meaningful results can be expected from observations using this technique. We use our code STOKES for performi…
Context. The evolution of amorphous hydrocarbon materials, a-C(:H), principally resulting from ultraviolet (UV) photon absorption- induced processing, are likely at the heart of the variations in the observed properties of dust in the interstellar medium. Aims. The consequences of the size-dependent and compositional variations in a-C(:H), from aliphatic-rich a-C:H to aromatic-rich a-C, are studied within the context of the interstellar dust extinction and emission. Methods. Newly-derived optical property data for a-C(:H) materials, combined with that for an amorphous forsterite-type silicate …
I have used Monte Carlo models with multiple scattering to predict the dust scattered light from our Galaxy and have compared the predictions with data in two UV bands from the GALEX spacecraft. I find that 90\% of the scattered light arises from less than 1000 stars with 25\% from the 10 brightest. About half of the diffuse radiation originates within 200 pc of the Sun with a maximum distance of 600 pc. Multiple scattering is important at any optical depth with 30\% of the flux being multiply scattered even at zero reddening. I find that the global distribution of the scattered light is insen…
The optical and UV emission from sub-parsec massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) in active galactic nuclei (AGN) is believed to vary periodically, on timescales comparable to the binary's orbital time. If driven by accretion rate fluctuations, the variability could be isotropic. If dominated by relativistic Doppler modulation, the variability should instead be anisotropic, resembling a rotating forward-beamed lighthouse. We consider the infrared (IR) reverberation of either type of periodic emission by pc-scale circumbinary dust tori. We predict the phase and amplitude of IR variability as a fu…
We present the first systematic physical modelling of the time-lag spectra between the soft (0.3-1 keV) and the hard (1.5-4 keV) X-ray energy bands, as a function of Fourier frequency, in a sample of 12 active galactic nuclei which have been observed by XMM-Newton. We concentrate particularly on the negative X-ray time-lags (typically seen above $10^{-4}$ Hz) i.e. soft band variations lag the hard band variations, and we assume that they are produced by reprocessing and reflection by the accretion disc within a lamp-post X-ray source geometry. We also assume that the response of the accretion …
