A characteristic optical variability time scale in astrophysical accretion disks

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

doi:10.1126/science.abg9933

A characteristic optical variability time scale in astrophysical accretion disks

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

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	789-792
Number of pages	4
Journal	Science
Volume	373
Issue number	6556
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abg9933
Publication status	Published - 13 Aug 2021

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Astronomy at St Andrews 2018-2021: Astronomy at St Andrews 2018-2021
Jardine, M. M. (PI), Bonnell, I. A. (CoI), Cameron, A. C. (CoI), Cyganowski, C. J. (CoI), Dominik, M. (CoI), Helling, C. (CoI), Horne, K. D. (CoI), Scholz, A. (CoI), Tojeiro, R. (CoI), Weijmans, A.-M. (CoI), Wild, V. (CoI), Woitke, P. (CoI), Wood, K. (CoI) & Zhao, H. (CoI)
1/04/18 → 31/03/22
Project: Standard

A characteristic optical variability timescale in astrophysical accretion disks
Burke, C. J. (Creator), Shen, Y. (Creator), Blaes, O. (Creator), Gammie, C. F. (Creator), Horne, K. (Creator), Jiang, Y.-F. (Creator), Liu, X. (Creator), McHardy, I. M. (Creator), Morgan, C. W. (Creator), Scaringi, S. (Creator) & Yang, Q. (Creator), Zenodo, 2021
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4914484
Dataset

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@article{801d26cd49c744b6b7e891628dceeca0,

title = "A characteristic optical variability time scale in astrophysical accretion disks",

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.",

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

note = "C.J.B. acknowledges support from an Illinois Graduate Survey Science Fellowship. Y.S. was supported by NSF grant AST-2009947. C.F.G. was supported by NSF grants AST-1716327 and OISE-1743747. K.H. was supported by UK STFC grant ST/R000824/1. I.M.M. was supported by UK STFC grant ST/R000638/1. C.W.M. was supported by NSF grant AST-2007680.",

year = "2021",

month = aug,

day = "13",

doi = "10.1126/science.abg9933",

language = "English",

volume = "373",

pages = "789--792",

journal = "Science",

issn = "0036-8075",

publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",

number = "6556",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - A characteristic optical variability time scale in astrophysical accretion disks

AU - Burke, Colin J.

AU - Shen, Yue

AU - Blaes, Omer

AU - Gammie, Charles F.

AU - Horne, Keith

AU - Jiang, Yan-Fei

AU - Liu, Xin

AU - McHardy, Ian M.

AU - Morgan, Christopher W.

AU - Scaringi, Simone

AU - Yang, Qian

N1 - C.J.B. acknowledges support from an Illinois Graduate Survey Science Fellowship. Y.S. was supported by NSF grant AST-2009947. C.F.G. was supported by NSF grants AST-1716327 and OISE-1743747. K.H. was supported by UK STFC grant ST/R000824/1. I.M.M. was supported by UK STFC grant ST/R000638/1. C.W.M. was supported by NSF grant AST-2007680.

PY - 2021/8/13

Y1 - 2021/8/13

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

U2 - 10.1126/science.abg9933

DO - 10.1126/science.abg9933

M3 - Article

SN - 0036-8075

VL - 373

SP - 789

EP - 792

JO - Science

JF - Science

IS - 6556

ER -

A characteristic optical variability time scale in astrophysical accretion disks

Abstract

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Astronomy at St Andrews 2018-2021: Astronomy at St Andrews 2018-2021

Datasets

A characteristic optical variability timescale in astrophysical accretion disks

Cite this