Decoding the spectral variations in the bare Seyfert 1 galaxy Fairall 9

X-ray spectroscopy and variability are powerful tools to understand the fundamental physics and accretion processes occurring in active galactic nuclei. The analysis is often hampered by the wealth of processes occurring simultaneously, making them difficult to disentangle. Our talk focuses on the luminous Seyfert 1 galaxy Fairall 9, whose spectrum and timing behavior is much simpler, as it is not affected by absorption processes. We aim to present a comprehensive spectral and timing study, based on an observing campaign performed in 2014. It consisted of a long-term Swift monitoring, three pointed XMM observations and one NUSTAR observation, performed jointly with one of XMM pointings. The different flux states of the pointed XMM observations allow us to identify the continuum as the main variability driver and constrain the accretion disk parameters with unprecedented quality. We are also able to establish that the source geometry remained absolutely unchanged over several months, a behavior not seen in other AGN. We study the connection of the UV and X-ray emission from the long-term Swift monitoring and establish that the UV lags the X-rays by several days. These time lags are then compared, together with the UV rms spectrum, to what is expected for a standard thin accretion disk and put into context of the results from the analysis of the XMM and NuSTAR data. Taken together this will provide us with the most complete picture of this AGN yet.