THE DISK EVAPORATION MODEL FOR THE SPECTRAL FEATURES OF LOW-LUMINOSITY ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI
- National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100012 (China)
- INAF-Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali di Roma (IAPS), Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, I-00133 Roma (Italy)
Observations show that the accretion flows in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei probably have a two-component structure with an inner, hot, optically thin, advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF) and an outer, truncated, cool, optically thick accretion disk. As shown by Taam et al., the truncation radius as a function of mass accretion rate is strongly affected by including the magnetic field within the framework of disk evaporation model, i.e., an increase in the magnetic field results in a smaller truncation radius of the accretion disk. In this work, we calculate the emergent spectrum of an inner ADAF + an outer truncated accretion disk around a supermassive black hole based on the prediction by Taam et al.. It is found that an increase in the magnetic field from β = 0.8 to β = 0.5 (with magnetic pressure p{sub m} = B {sup 2}/8π = (1 – β)p{sub tot}, p{sub tot} = p{sub gas} + p{sub m}) results in a factor of ∼8.7 increase in the luminosity from the truncated accretion disk. Meanwhile, results of the peak emission of the truncated accretion disk shift toward a a factor of ∼5 higher frequency. We found that the equipartition of gas pressure to magnetic pressure, i.e., β = 0.5, failed to explain the observed anti-correlation between L{sub 2-10{sub keV}}/L{sub Edd} and the bolometric correction κ{sub 2-10{sub keV}} (with κ{sub 2-10{sub keV}} = L{sub bol}/L{sub 2-10{sub keV}}). The emergent spectra for larger values of β = 0.8 or β = 0.95 can explain the observed L{sub 2-10{sub keV}}/L{sub Edd}-κ{sub 2-10{sub keV}} correlation. We argue that in the disk evaporation model, the electrons in the corona are assumed to be heated only by a transfer of energy from the ions to electrons via Coulomb collisions, which is reasonable for accretion with a lower mass accretion rate. Coulomb heating is the dominated heating mechanism for the electrons only if the magnetic field is strongly sub-equipartition, which is roughly consistent with observations.
- OSTI ID:
- 22270604
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 777, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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