Monitoring the Violent Activity from the Inner Accretion Disk of the Seyfert 1.9 Galaxy NGC 2992 with RXTE

Abstract

We present the results of a one year monitoring campaign of the Seyfert 1.9 galaxy NGC 2992 with RXTE. Historically, the source has been shown to vary dramatically in 2-10 keV flux over timescales of years and was thought to be slowly transitioning between periods of quiescence and active accretion. Our results show that in one year the source continuum flux covered almost the entire historical range, making it unlikely that the low-luminosity states correspond to the accretion mechanism switching off. During flaring episodes we found that a highly redshifted Fe K line appears, implying that the violent activity is occurring in the inner accretion disk, within ~100 gravitational radii of the central black hole. We also found that the spectral index of the X-ray continuum remained approximately constant during the large amplitude variability. These observations make NGC 2992 well-suited for future multi-waveband monitoring, as a test-bed for constraining accretion models.

arXiv commentAbstract is abridged. Accepted for publication in the September 2007 issue of ApJ. 39 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables

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