On the Observational Difference between the Accretion Disk-Corona Connections among Super- and Sub-Eddington Accreting Active Galactic Nuclei
Abstract
We present a systematic X-ray and multiwavelength study of a sample of 47 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with reverberation mapping measurements. This sample includes 21 super-Eddington accreting AGNs and 26 sub-Eddington accreting AGNs. Using high-state observations with simultaneous X-ray and UV/optical measurements, we investigate whether super-Eddington accreting AGNs exhibit different accretion disk-corona connections compared to sub-Eddington accreting AGNs. We find tight correlations between the X-ray-to-UV/optical spectral slope parameter (αOX) and the monochromatic luminosity at 2500 Å (L2500Å) for both the super- and sub-Eddington subsamples. The best-fit αOX-L2500Å relations are consistent overall, indicating that super-Eddington accreting AGNs are not particularly X-ray weak in general compared to sub-Eddington accreting AGNs. We find dependences of αOX on both the Eddington ratio (LBol/LEdd) and black hole mass (MBH) parameters for our full sample. A multivariate linear regression analysis yields ${\alpha }_{\mathrm{OX}}=-0.13\mathrm{log}({L}_{\mathrm{Bol}}/{L}_{\mathrm{Edd}})-0.10\mathrm{log}{M}_{\mathrm{BH}}-0.69$ <!-- --> , with a scatter similar to that of the αOX-L2500Å relation. The hard (rest-frame >2 keV) X-ray photon index (Γ) is strongly correlated with LBol/LEdd for the full sample and the super-Eddington subsample, but these two parameters are not significantly correlated for the sub-Eddington subsample. A fraction of super-Eddington accreting AGNs show strong X-ray variability, probably due to small-scale gas absorption, and we highlight the importance of employing high-state (intrinsic) X-ray radiation to study the accretion disk-corona connections in AGNs.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- April 2021
- DOI:
- 10.3847/1538-4357/abe37f
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2102.02832
- Bibcode:
- 2021ApJ...910..103L
- Keywords:
-
- Accretion;
- X-ray active galactic nuclei;
- Radio quiet quasars;
- 14;
- 2035;
- 1354;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 31 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ