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1. Temperature fluctuations in quasar accretion discs from spectroscopic monitoring data

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad2034  

   Stone, Zachary ; Shen, Yue ( July 2023 , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   NK22 proposed a new method to reconstruct the temperature perturbation map (as functions of time and disc radius) of active galactic nuclei (AGN) accretion discs using multiwavelength photometric light curves. We apply their technique to 100 quasars at z = 0.5–2 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping project, using multi-epoch spectroscopy that covers rest-frame UV-optical continuum emission from the quasar and probes days to months time-scales. Consistent with NK22 for low-redshift AGNs, we find that the dominant pattern of disc temperature perturbations is either slow inward/outward moving waves with typical amplitudes $\delta T/T_0\sim 10~{{\ \rm per \, cent}}$ traveling at ∼0.01–0.1c, with a typical radial frequency of ∼ 0.5 dex in log R, or incoherent perturbations. In nearly none of the cases do we find clear evidence for coherent, fast outgoing temperature perturbations at the speed of light, reminiscent of the lamppost model; but such lamppost signals may be present in some quasars for limited periods of the monitoring data. Using simulated data, we demonstrate that high-fidelity temperature perturbation maps can be recovered with high-quality monitoring spectroscopy, with limited impact from seasonal gaps in the data. On the other hand, reasonable temperature perturbation maps can be reconstructed with high-cadence photometric light curves from the Vera C Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Our findings, together with NK22, suggest that internal disc processes are the main driver for temperature fluctuations in AGN accretion discs over days to months time-scales.

    

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2. AGN STORM 2. VI. Mapping Temperature Fluctuations in the Accretion Disk of Mrk 817

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad1386  

   Neustadt, Jack M. M. ; Kochanek, Christopher S. ; Montano, John ; Gelbord, Jonathan ; Barth, Aaron J. ; De Rosa, Gisella ; Kriss, Gerard A. ; Cackett, Edward M. ; Horne, Keith ; Kara, Erin A. ; et al ( January 2024 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   We fit the UV/optical lightcurves of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 817 to produce maps of the accretion disk temperature fluctuationsδTresolved in time and radius. TheδTmaps are dominated by coherent radial structures that move slowly (v≪c) inward and outward, which conflicts with the idea that disk variability is driven only by reverberation. Instead, these slow-moving temperature fluctuations are likely due to variability intrinsic to the disk. We test how modifying the input lightcurves by smoothing and subtracting them changes the resultingδTmaps and find that most of the temperature fluctuations exist over relatively long timescales (hundreds of days). We show how detrending active galactic nucleus (AGN) lightcurves can be used to separate the flux variations driven by the slow-moving temperature fluctuations from those driven by reverberation. We also simulate contamination of the continuum emission from the disk by continuum emission from the broad-line region (BLR), which is expected to have spectral features localized in wavelength, such as the Balmer break contaminating theUband. We find that a disk with a smooth temperature profile cannot produce a signal localized in wavelength and that any BLR contamination should appear as residuals in our model lightcurves. Given the observed residuals, we estimate that only ∼20% of the variable flux in theUandulightcurves can be due to BLR contamination. Finally, we discus how these maps not only describe the data but can make predictions about other aspects of AGN variability.

    

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3. Electro-optic interface for ultrasensitive intracavity electric field measurements at microwave and terahertz frequencies

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.384160  

   Benea-Chelmus, Ileana-Cristina ; Salamin, Yannick ; Settembrini, Francesca Fabiana ; Fedoryshyn, Yuriy ; Heni, Wolfgang ; Elder, Delwin L. ; Dalton, Larry R. ; Leuthold, Juerg ; Faist, Jérôme ( May 2020 , Optica)

   Electro-optic quantum coherent interfaces map the amplitude and phase of a quantum signal directly to the phase or intensity of a probe beam. At terahertz frequencies, a fundamental challenge is not only to sense such weak signals (due to a weak coupling with a probe in the near-infrared) but also to resolve them in the time domain. Cavity confinement of both light fields can increase the interaction and achieve strong coupling. Using this approach, current realizations are limited to low microwave frequencies. Alternatively, in bulk crystals, electro-optic sampling was shown to reach quantum-level sensitivity of terahertz waves. Yet, the coupling strength was extremely weak. Here, we propose an on-chip architecture that concomitantly provides subcycle temporal resolution and an extreme sensitivity to sense terahertz intracavity fields below 20 V/m. We use guided femtosecond pulses in the near-infrared and a confinement of the terahertz wave to a volume of$V_{\mathrm{T}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{z}}\sim <\#comment/>{10}^{-<\#comment/>9}({\mathrm{\lambda <\#comment/>}}_{\mathrm{T}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{z}}/2{)}^3$in combination with ultraperformant organic molecules ($r_{33}=170\mathrm{p}\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{V}$) and accomplish a record-high single-photon electro-optic coupling rate of$g_{\mathrm{e}\mathrm{o}}=2\mathrm{\pi <\#comment/>}\times <\#comment/>0.043\mathrm{G}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{z}$, 10,000 times higher than in recent reports of sensing vacuum field fluctuations in bulk media. Via homodyne detection implemented directly on chip, the interaction results into an intensity modulation of the femtosecond pulses. The single-photon cooperativity is$C_0=1.6\times <\#comment/>{10}^{-<\#comment/>8}$, and the multiphoton cooperativity is$C=0.002$at room temperature. We show$><\#comment/>70\mathrm{d}\mathrm{B}$dynamic range in intensity at 500 ms integration under irradiation with a weak coherent terahertz field. Similar devices could be employed in future measurements of quantum states in the terahertz at the standard quantum limit, or for entanglement of subsystems on subcycle temporal scales, such as terahertz and near-infrared quantum bits.

    

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4. Simulating X-Ray Reverberation in the Ultraviolet-emitting Regions of Active Galactic Nuclei Accretion Disks with Three-dimensional Multifrequency Radiation Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad34b0  

   Secunda, Amy ; Jiang 姜, Yan-Fei 燕飞 ; Greene, Jenny E. ( April 2024 , The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   Active galactic nuclei (AGN) light curves observed with different wave bands show that the variability in longer wavelength bands lags the variability in shorter wavelength bands. Measuring these lags, or reverberation mapping, is used to measure the radial temperature profile and extent of AGN disks, typically with a reprocessing model that assumes X-rays are the main driver of the variability in other wavelength bands. To demonstrate how this reprocessing works with realistic accretion disk structures, we use 3D local shearing box multifrequency radiation magnetohydrodynamic simulations to model the UV-emitting region of an AGN disk, which is unstable to the magnetorotational instability and convection. At the same time, we inject hard X-rays (>1 keV) into the simulation box to study the effects of X-ray irradiation on the local properties of the turbulence and the resulting variability of the emitted UV light curve. We find that disk turbulence is sufficient to drive intrinsic variability in emitted UV light curves and that a damped random walk model is a good fit to this UV light curve for timescales >5 days. Meanwhile, X-ray irradiation has negligible impact on the power spectrum of the emitted UV light curve. Furthermore, the injected X-ray and emitted UV light curves are only correlated if there is X-ray variability on timescales >1 day, in which case we find a correlation coefficientr= 0.34. These results suggest that if the opacity for hard X-rays is scattering dominated as in the standard disk model, hard X-rays are not the main driver of reverberation signals.

    

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5. The emergence of diffused gamma-ray burst afterglows from the discs of active galactic nuclei

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac1968  

   Wang, Yi-Han ; Lazzati, Davide ; Perna, Rosalba ( July 2022 , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   The discs of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have emerged as rich environments for the production and capture of stars and the compact objects that they leave behind. These stars produce long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) at their deaths, while frequent interactions among compact objects form binary neutron stars and neutron star–black hole binaries, leading to short GRBs upon their merger. Predicting the properties of these transients as they emerge from the dense environments of AGN discs is key to their proper identification and to better constrain the star and compact object population in AGN discs. Some of these transients would appear unusual because they take place in much higher densities than the interstellar medium. Others, which are the subject of this paper, would additionally be modified by radiation diffusion, since they are generated within optically thick regions of the accretion discs. Here, we compute the GRB afterglow light curves for diffused GRB sources for a representative variety of central black hole masses and disc locations. We find that the radiation from radio to ultraviolet and soft X-rays can be strongly suppressed by synchrotron self-absorption in the dense medium of the AGN disc. In addition, photon diffusion can significantly delay the emergence of the emission peak, turning a beamed, fast transient into a slow, isotropic, and dimmer one. These would appear as broad-band correlated AGN variability with a dominance at the higher frequencies. Their properties can constrain both the stellar populations within AGN discs and the disc structure.

    

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