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We present extremely deep upper limits on the radio emission from 4U 1957+11, an X-ray binary that is generally believed to be a persistently accreting black hole that is almost always in the soft state. We discuss a more comprehensive search for Type I bursts than in past work, revealing a stringent upper limit on the burst rate, bolstering the case for a black hole accretor. The lack of detection of this source at the 1.07 μJy/beam noise level indicates jet suppression that is stronger than expected even in the most extreme thin disc models for radio jet production – the radio power here is 1500–3700 times lower than the extrapolation of the hard state radio/X-ray correlation, with the uncertainties depending primarily on the poorly constrained source distance. We also discuss the location and velocity of the source and show that it must have either formed in the halo or with a strong asymmetric natal kick. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the results of extensive multi-frequency monitoring of the radio galaxy 3C ill between 2004 and 2010 at X-ray (2.4-10 keV), optical (R band), and radio (14.5, 37, and 230 GHz) wave bands, as well as multi-epoch imaging with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) at 43 GHz. Over the six years of observation, significant dips in the X-ray light curve are followed by ejections of bright superluminal knots in the VLBA images. This shows a clear connection between the radiative state near the black hole, where the X-rays are produced, and events in the jet. The X-ray continuum flux and Fe line intensity are strongly correlated, with a time lag shorter than 90 days and consistent with zero. This implies that the Feline is generated within 90 It-day of the source of the X-ray continuum. The power spectral density function of X-ray variations contains a break, with a steeper slope at shorter timescales. The break timescale of 13-6+12 days is commensurate with scaling according to the mass of the central black hole based on observations of Seyfert galaxies and black hole X-ray binaries (BHXRBs). The data are consistent with the standard paradigm, in which the X-rays are predominantly produced by inverse Compton scattering of thermal optical/UV seed photons from the accretion disk by a distribution of hot electrons—the corona—situated near the disk. Most of the optical emission is generated in the accretion disk due to reprocessing of the X-ray emission. The relationships that we have uncovered between the accretion disk and the jet in 3C 111, as well as in the Fanaroff-Riley class I radio galaxy 3C 120 in a previous paper, support the paradigm that active galactic nuclei and Galactic BHXRBs are fundamentally similar, with characteristic time and size scales proportional to the mass of the central black hole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use X-ray monitoring data obtained over a broad range of time-scales to measure the broad-band power spectral density functions (PSDs) of two Seyfert galaxies: the broad-line Seyfert 1 NGC 3227 and the Seyfert 2 NGC 5506, which has recently been identified as an obscured narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS 1). Using a Monte Carlo fitting technique, we demonstrate that both PSDs are reminiscent of the PSD of black hole X-ray binaries (BHXRBs) in the high/soft state, and specifically rule out a low/hard-state PSD shape in NGC 3227. This result demonstrates that, at least where variability is concerned, broad-line Seyferts with hard X-ray spectra (photon index ) are not simply the analogues of the low/hard state in BHXRBs, and the dichotomy of NLS 1 and broad-line Seyferts cannot be simply interpreted in terms of the two states. We show that the PSD normalization in NGC 3227 is strongly energy-dependent, with larger variability amplitudes at lower energies, unlike NGC 5506 which shows little energy dependence of variability. We demonstrate that this difference is caused by spectral pivoting of the continuum in NGC 3227 at high energies, which is probably also related to the large amplitude of variability seen in the 2–10 keV band in this active galactic nucleus (AGN). Using the new PSD data and new results in the literature, we replot the PSD break time-scale versus mass plot for all AGNs with PSD breaks measured so far, and demonstrate that higher accretion rate AGNs appear to have relatively shorter break time-scales for their black hole mass than lower accretion rate AGNs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standard shot-noise models, which seek to explain the broadband noise variability that characterizes the X-ray light curves of X-ray binaries and active galaxies, predict that the power spectrum of the X-ray light curve is stationary (i.e. constant amplitude and shape) on short time-scales. We show that the broadband noise power spectra of the black hole candidate Cyg X-1 and the accreting millisecond pulsar SAX J 1808.4-3658 are intrinsically non-stationary, in that rms variability scales linearly with flux. Flux-selected power spectra confirm that this effect is due to changes in power-spectral amplitude and not shape. The light curves of three Seyfert galaxies are also consistent with a linear relationship between rms variability and flux, suggesting that it is an intrinsic feature of the broadband noise variability in compact accreting systems over more than six decades of central object mass. The rms variability responds to flux variations on all measured time-scales, raising fundamental difficulties for shot-noise models which seek to explain this result by invoking variations in the shot parameters. We suggest that models should be explored where the longest time-scale variations are fundamental and precede the variations on shorter timescales. Possible models which can explain the linear rms-flux relation include the fractal break-up of large coronal flares, or the propagation of fluctuations in mass accretion rate through the accretion disc. The linear relationship between rms variability and flux in Cyg X-1 and SAX J1808.4-3658 is offset on the flux axis, suggesting the presence of a second, constant-flux component to the light curve which contributes ∼25 per cent of the total flux. The spectrum of this constant component is similar to the total spectrum, suggesting that it may correspond to quiet, non-varying regions in the X-ray emitting corona. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]