Two-temperature coronae in active galactic nuclei

Abstract

We show that coronal magnetic dissipation in thin active sheets that sandwich standard thin accretion disks in active galactic nuclei may account for canonical electron temperatures of a few $\times 10^9$K if protons acquire most of the dissipated energy. Coulomb collisions transfer energy from the ions to the electrons, which subsequently cool rapidly by inverse-Compton scattering. In equilibrium, the proton energy density likely exceeds that of the magnetic field and both well exceed the electron and photon energy densities. The Coulomb energy transfer from protons to electrons is slow enough to maintain a high proton temperature, but fast enough to explain observed rapid X-ray variabilities in Seyferts. The $\sim 10^9$K electron temperature is insensitive to the proton temperature when the latter is $\ge 10^{12}$K.

5 pages LaTex, and 2 .ps figures, submitted to MNRAS, 4/97

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