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M. Kadler, E. Ros (MPIfR), K. Weaver (LHEA, NASA/GSFC), J. Kerp (RAIUB), J.A. Zensus (MPIfR)
Relativistically broadened iron lines from active galactic nuclei (AGN) provide a powerful tool to study dynamical processes in the accretion of gas onto supermassive black holes. The formation of relativistic jets, on the other hand, is thought to be closely related to the accretion disk dynamics. The characteristic skewed iron line profile, which can be studied with X-ray spectroscopy, is a sensitive measure of the inner radius of the accretion disk, so that a direct correlation between line variability and the ejection of new components into the jets, seen in radio, is expected.
Here we report the first detection of a relativistic, broad iron line in a radio-loud AGN with a prominent compact jet-structure. This detection, in the LINER galaxy NGC1052, allows one for the first time to study the inter-relation between the accretion process and jet dynamics on sub-parsec scales. Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations of NGC1052 can probe regions as small as light days in the black hole vicinity and have been performed regularly at a wavelength of 2cm within the scope of the VLBA 2cm Survey since 1995. The most violent ejection of a new, bright jet component into the jet of NGC1052 during this monitoring campaign occured in 2000. We report significant variability of the relativistic iron line between two X-ray observations before and after this ejection event, performed with the BeppoSax and the XMM-Newton telescopes. Such an observational signature suggests that a part of the disk was fed into the black hole and a fraction of the material was ejected into the jet.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mkadler@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #2
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