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Your search keyword '"J, Kennea"' showing total 4 results
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4 results on '"J, Kennea"'

1. A Swift study of long-term changes in the X-ray flaring properties of Sagittarius A

Author

A Andrés, J van den Eijnden, N Degenaar, P A Evans, K Chatterjee, M Reynolds, J M Miller, J Kennea, R Wijnands, S Markoff, D Altamirano, C O Heinke, A Bahramian, G Ponti, D Haggard, and High Energy Astrophys. & Astropart. Phys (API, FNWI)

Subjects
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE), Space and Planetary Science, Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics
Abstract

The radiative counterpart of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Centre, Sagittarius A*, displays flaring emission in the X-ray band atop a steady, quiescent level. Flares are also observed in the near-infrared band. The physical process producing the flares is not fully understood and it is unclear if the flaring rate varies, although some recent works suggest it has reached unprecedented variability in recent years. Using over a decade of regular X-ray monitoring of Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, we studied the variations in count rate of Sgr A* on time scales of years. We decomposed the X-ray emission into quiescent and flaring emission, modelled as a constant and power law process, respectively. We found that the complete, multi-year dataset cannot be described by a stationary distribution of flare fluxes, while individual years follow this model better. In three of the ten studied years, the data is consistent with a purely Poissonian quiescent distribution, while for five years only an upper limit of the flare flux distribution parameter could be determined. We find that these possible changes cannot be explained fully by the different number of observations per year. Combined, these results are instead consistent with a changing flaring rate of Sgr A*, appearing more active between 2006-2007 and 2017-2019, than between 2008-2012. Finally, we discuss this result in the context of flare models and the passing of gaseous objects, and discuss the extra statistical steps taken, for instance to deal with the background in the Swift observations., 14 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Published
2022
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2. The First Swift Intensive AGN Accretion Disk Reverberation Mapping Survey

Author

R. Edelson, J. Gelbord, E. Cackett, B. M. Peterson, Keith Horne, A. J. Barth, D. A. Starkey, M. Bentz, W. N. Brandt, M. Goad, M. Joner, K. Korista, H. Netzer, K. Page, P. Uttley, S. Vaughan, A. Breeveld, S. B. Cenko, C. Done, P. Evans, M. Fausnaugh, G. Ferland, D. Gonzalez-Buitrago, J. Gropp, D. Grupe, J. Kaastra, J. Kennea, G. Kriss, S. Mathur, M. Mehdipour, D. Mudd, J. Nousek, T. Schmidt, M. Vestergaard, and C. Villforth

Subjects
Astrophysics
Abstract

Swift intensive accretion disk reverberation mapping of four AGN yielded light curves sampled ∼200–350 times in 0.3–10 keV X-ray and six UV/optical bands. Uniform reduction and cross-correlation analysis of these data sets yields three main results: (1) The X-ray/UV correlations are much weaker than those within the UV/optical, posing severe problems for the lamp-post reprocessing model in which variations in a central X-ray corona drive and power those in the surrounding accretion disk. (2) The UV/optical interband lags are generally consistent with t μ l4 3 as predicted by the centrally illuminated thin accretion disk model. While the average interband lags are somewhat larger than predicted, these results alone are not inconsistent with the thin disk model given the large systematic uncertainties involved. (3) The one exception is the U band lags, which are on average a factor of ∼2.2 larger than predicted from the surrounding band data and fits. This excess appears to be due to diffuse continuum emission from the broad-line region (BLR). The precise mixing of disk and BLR components cannot be determined from these data alone. The lags in different AGN appear to scale with mass or luminosity. We also find that there are systematic differences between the uncertainties derived by JAVELIN versus more standard lag measurement techniques, with JAVELIN reporting smaller uncertainties by a factor of 2.5 on average. In order to be conservative only standard techniques were used in the analyses reported herein.

Published
2019
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4. Identification of the Hard X-Ray Source Dominating the E > 25 keV Emission of the Nearby Galaxy M31.

Author

M. Yukita, A. Ptak, A. E. Hornschemeier, D. Wik, T. J. Maccarone, K. Pottschmidt, A. Zezas, V. Antoniou, R. Ballhausen, B. D. Lehmer, A. Lien, B. Williams, F. Baganoff, P. T. Boyd, T. Enoto, J. Kennea, K. L. Page, and Y. Choi

Subjects
HARD X-rays, EMISSION-line galaxies, PULSARS, NEUTRON stars, PHOTON statistics, X-ray binaries
Abstract

We report the identification of a bright hard X-ray source dominating the M31 bulge above 25 keV from a simultaneous NuSTAR–Swift observation. We find that this source is the counterpart to Swift J0042.6+4112, which was previously detected in the Swift BAT All-sky Hard X-ray Survey. This Swift BAT source had been suggested to be the combined emission from a number of point sources; our new observations have identified a single X-ray source from 0.5 to 50 keV as the counterpart for the first time. In the 0.5–10 keV band, the source had been classified as an X-ray Binary candidate in various Chandra and XMM-Newton studies; however, since it was not clearly associated with Swift J0042.6+4112, the previous E < 10 keV observations did not generate much attention. This source has a spectrum with a soft X-ray excess (kT ∼ 0.2 keV) plus a hard spectrum with a power law of and a cutoff around 15–20 keV, typical of the spectral characteristics of accreting pulsars. Unfortunately, any potential pulsation was undetected in the NuSTAR data, possibly due to insufficient photon statistics. The existing deep HST images exclude high-mass (>3 ) donors at the location of this source. The best interpretation for the nature of this source is an X-ray pulsar with an intermediate-mass (<3 ) companion or a symbiotic X-ray binary. We discuss other possibilities in more detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2017
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