An X-Ray View of the Jet-Cycle in the Radio Loud AGN 3C120

Abstract

We present a study of the central engine in the broad-line radio galaxy 3C120 using a multi-epoch analysis of a deep XMM-Newton observation and two deep Suzaku pointings (in 2012). In order to place our spectral data into the context of the disk-disruption/jet-ejection cycles displayed by this object, we monitor the source in the UV/X-ray bands, and in the radio band. We find three statistically acceptable spectral models, a disk-reflection model, a jet-model and a jet+disk model. Despite being good descriptions of the data, the disk-reflection model violates the radio constraints on the inclination, and the jet-model has a fine-tuning problem, requiring a jet contribution exceeding that expected. Thus, we argue for a composite jet+disk model. Within the context of this model, we verify the basic predictions of the jet-cycle paradigm, finding a truncated/refilling disk during the Suzaku observations and a complete disk extending down to the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) during the XMM-Newton observation. The idea of a refilling disk is further supported by the detection of the ejection of a new jet knot approximately one month after the Suzaku pointings. We also discover a step-like event in one of the Suzaku pointings in which the soft band lags the hard band. We suggest that we are witnessing the propagation of a disturbance from the disk into the jet on a timescale set by the magnetic field.

14 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (8)

• X-ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries
• An XMM-Newton survey of broad iron lines in Seyfert galaxies
• Stability of Relativistic Jets from Rotating, Accreting Black Holes via Fully Three-Dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations
• Simultaneous X-ray/optical/UV snapshots of active galactic nuclei from XMM-Newton: spectral energy distributions for the reverberation mapped sample
• Broad iron K-alpha emission lines as a diagnostic of black hole spin
• Trapping of magnetic flux by the plunge region of a black hole accretion disk
• Photometric reverberation mapping of 3C120
• Multi-wavelength Variability of the Broad Line Radio Galaxy 3C 120

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