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A characteristic optical variability time scale in astrophysical accretion disks

Burke, Colin J.; Shen, Yue; Blaes, Omer; Gammie, Charles F.; Horne, Keith; Jiang, Yan-Fei; Liu, Xin; McHardy, Ian M.; Morgan, Christopher W.; Scaringi, Simone; Yang, Qian

A characteristic optical variability time scale in astrophysical accretion disks Thumbnail


Authors

Colin J. Burke

Yue Shen

Omer Blaes

Charles F. Gammie

Keith Horne

Yan-Fei Jiang

Xin Liu

Ian M. McHardy

Christopher W. Morgan

Qian Yang



Abstract

Accretion disks around supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei produce continuum radiation at ultraviolet and optical wavelengths. Physical processes in the accretion flow lead to stochastic variability of this emission on a wide range of time scales. We measured the optical continuum variability observed in 67 active galactic nuclei and the characteristic time scale at which the variability power spectrum flattens. We found a correlation between this time scale and the black hole mass extending over the entire mass range of supermassive black holes. This time scale is consistent with the expected thermal time scale at the ultraviolet-emitting radius in standard accretion disk theory. Accreting white dwarfs lie close to this correlation, suggesting a common process for all accretion disks.

Citation

Burke, C. J., Shen, Y., Blaes, O., Gammie, C. F., Horne, K., Jiang, Y., …Yang, Q. (2021). A characteristic optical variability time scale in astrophysical accretion disks. Science, 373(6556), 789-792. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abg9933

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Aug 13, 2021
Publication Date Aug 13, 2021
Deposit Date Oct 26, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Science
Print ISSN 0036-8075
Electronic ISSN 1095-9203
Publisher American Association for the Advancement of Science
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 373
Issue 6556
Pages 789-792
DOI https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abg9933
Related Public URLs https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.05389

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Copyright Statement
This is
the author’s version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal
use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science on
373:6556 and 13 August 2021, DOI: 10.1126/science.abg9933





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