A New Timescale–Mass Scaling for the Optical Variation of Active Galactic Nuclei across the Intermediate-mass to Supermassive Scales

The variability of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) has long been servicing as an essential avenue of exploring the accretion physics of a black hole (BH). There are two commonly used methods for analyzing AGN variability. First, the AGN variability, characterized by the structure function (SF) of a si...

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Veröffentlicht in:The Astrophysical journal 2024-07, Vol.969 (2), p.78
Hauptverfasser: Su, Zhen-Bo, Cai, Zhen-Yi, Sun, Mouyuan, Guo, Hengxiao, Gu, Wei-Min, Wang, Jun-Xian
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container_title The Astrophysical journal
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Cai, Zhen-Yi
Sun, Mouyuan
Guo, Hengxiao
Gu, Wei-Min
Wang, Jun-Xian
description The variability of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) has long been servicing as an essential avenue of exploring the accretion physics of a black hole (BH). There are two commonly used methods for analyzing AGN variability. First, the AGN variability, characterized by the structure function (SF) of a single band, can be well described by a damped random walk (DRW) process on timescales longer than ∼weeks, shorter than which departures have been reported. Second, the color variation (CV) between two bands behaves timescale dependent, raising challenges to the widely accepted reprocessing scenario. However, both the departure from the DRW process and the timescale-dependent CV are hitherto limited to AGNs, mainly quasars, at the supermassive scale. Here, utilizing the high-cadence multiwavelength monitoring on NGC 4395 harboring an intermediate-mass BH, we unveil at the intermediate-mass scale for the first time, prominent departures from the DRW process at timescales shorter than ∼hours in all three nights and bands, and plausible timescale-dependent CVs in the two longest nights of observation. Furthermore, comparing SFs of NGC 4395 to four AGNs at the supermassive scale, we suggest a new scaling relation between the timescale ( τ ; across nearly 3 orders of magnitude) and the BH mass ( M BH ): τ ∝ M BH γ where the exponent γ is likely ≃0.6–0.8. This exponent differs from most previous measurements, but confirms a few, and is consistent with a recent theoretical prediction, suggesting a similar accretion process in AGNs across different mass scales.
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subjects Accretion
Active galactic nuclei
Black holes
Intermediate-mass black holes
Quasars
Random walk
Reprocessing
Supermassive black holes
Time
Variability
title A New Timescale–Mass Scaling for the Optical Variation of Active Galactic Nuclei across the Intermediate-mass to Supermassive Scales
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