Kavli Affiliate: Erin Kara
| First 5 Authors: Ethan R. Partington, Edward M. Cackett, Rick Edelson, Keith Horne, Jonathan Gelbord
| Summary:
The Seyfert 1 AGN Fairall 9 was targeted by NICER, Swift, and ground-based
observatories for a $sim$1000-day long reverberation mapping campaign. The
following analysis of NICER spectra taken at a two-day cadence provides new
insights into the structure and heating mechanisms of the central black hole
environment. Observations of Fairall 9 with NICER and Swift revealed a strong
relationship between the flux of the UV continuum and the X-ray soft excess,
indicating the presence of a "warm" Comptonized corona which likely lies in the
upper layers of the innermost accretion flow, serving as a second reprocessor
between the "hot" X-ray corona and the accretion disk. The X-ray emission from
the hot corona lacks sufficient energy and variability to power slow changes in
the UV light curve on timescales of 30 days or longer, suggesting an intrinsic
disk-driven variability process in the UV and soft X-rays. Fast variability in
the UV on timescales shorter than 30 days can be explained through X-ray
reprocessing, and the observed weak X-ray/UV correlation suggests that the
corona changes dynamically throughout the campaign.
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