A New Interpretation for the Hot Corona in Active Galactic Nuclei
This work attempts to provide a new interpretation for the hot corona in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). A thin parabolic magnetic reconnection layer, anchored at the innermost disk and extending along the boundary of the magnetic tower for a few tens of gravitational radii, serves as a hard-X-ray so...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ada35e |
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| author | Yu Zhao Yan-Rong Li Jian-Min Wang |
| author_facet | Yu Zhao Yan-Rong Li Jian-Min Wang |
| author_sort | Yu Zhao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This work attempts to provide a new interpretation for the hot corona in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). A thin parabolic magnetic reconnection layer, anchored at the innermost disk and extending along the boundary of the magnetic tower for a few tens of gravitational radii, serves as a hard-X-ray source above the disk. Within this reconnection layer, the tearing instability leads to the formation of a chain of plasmoids, which contain relativistic electrons that generate X-ray radiation through inverse-Compton (IC) scattering of soft photons emitted by the accretion disk. Based on previous theoretical works and numerical simulations, we develop a heuristic framework to parameterize the geometry and magnetization of the reconnection layer, as well as to compute both the power of the IC-scattering radiation and the height of the reconnection layer. Our model allows for a quantitative investigation of the relation between the height of the corona and the X-ray radiation luminosity, which can be directly compared against the observed relation from X-ray reverberation mapping of individual AGNs. The theoretical results are in good agreement with the observations of IRAS 13224-3809, indicating the validation of our model. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-aa847b4812a14a1b96bf7aa1f56a9924 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-aa847b4812a14a1b96bf7aa1f56a99242025-01-28T07:02:06ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572025-01-01979220110.3847/1538-4357/ada35eA New Interpretation for the Hot Corona in Active Galactic NucleiYu Zhao0https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7629-1459Yan-Rong Li1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5841-9179Jian-Min Wang2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9449-9268Key Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics , Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China; School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of ChinaKey Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics , Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of ChinaKey Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics , Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China; School of Astronomy and Space Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China; National Astronomical Observatory of China , 20A Datun Road, Beijing 100020, People’s Republic of ChinaThis work attempts to provide a new interpretation for the hot corona in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). A thin parabolic magnetic reconnection layer, anchored at the innermost disk and extending along the boundary of the magnetic tower for a few tens of gravitational radii, serves as a hard-X-ray source above the disk. Within this reconnection layer, the tearing instability leads to the formation of a chain of plasmoids, which contain relativistic electrons that generate X-ray radiation through inverse-Compton (IC) scattering of soft photons emitted by the accretion disk. Based on previous theoretical works and numerical simulations, we develop a heuristic framework to parameterize the geometry and magnetization of the reconnection layer, as well as to compute both the power of the IC-scattering radiation and the height of the reconnection layer. Our model allows for a quantitative investigation of the relation between the height of the corona and the X-ray radiation luminosity, which can be directly compared against the observed relation from X-ray reverberation mapping of individual AGNs. The theoretical results are in good agreement with the observations of IRAS 13224-3809, indicating the validation of our model.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ada35eSupermassive black holesMagnetic fieldsActive galactic nucleiX-ray active galactic nuclei |
| spellingShingle | Yu Zhao Yan-Rong Li Jian-Min Wang A New Interpretation for the Hot Corona in Active Galactic Nuclei The Astrophysical Journal Supermassive black holes Magnetic fields Active galactic nuclei X-ray active galactic nuclei |
| title | A New Interpretation for the Hot Corona in Active Galactic Nuclei |
| title_full | A New Interpretation for the Hot Corona in Active Galactic Nuclei |
| title_fullStr | A New Interpretation for the Hot Corona in Active Galactic Nuclei |
| title_full_unstemmed | A New Interpretation for the Hot Corona in Active Galactic Nuclei |
| title_short | A New Interpretation for the Hot Corona in Active Galactic Nuclei |
| title_sort | new interpretation for the hot corona in active galactic nuclei |
| topic | Supermassive black holes Magnetic fields Active galactic nuclei X-ray active galactic nuclei |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ada35e |
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