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[Abridged] The relation between nuclear star clusters (NSCs) and the growth of the central SMBHs, as well as their connection to the properties of the host galaxies, is crucial for understanding the evolution of galaxies. Recent observations have revealed that about 10 per cent of nucleated galaxies host hybrid nuclei, consisting of both NSCs and accreting SMBHs that power active galactic nuclei (AGN). Motivated by the potential of the recently published multi-wavelength data sets from LeMMINGs survey, here we present the most thorough investigation to date of the incidence of hybrid nuclei in a large sample of 100 nearby nucleated galaxies (10 E, 25 S0, 63 S, and 2 Irr), covering a wide range in stellar mass ($M_{*,\rm gal} \sim 10^{8.7}-10^{12}~\rm M_{sun}$). We identify the nuclei and derive their properties by performing detailed 1D and 2D multi-component decompositions of the optical and near-infrared $HST$ stellar light distributions of the galaxies using S\'ersic and core-S\'ersic models. Our AGN diagnostics are based on homogeneously derived nuclear 1.5 GHz $e$-MERLIN radio, $Chandra$ X-ray (0.3--10 keV) and optical emission-line data. We determine the nucleation fraction ($f_{\rm nuc} $) as the relative incidence of nuclei across the LeMMINGs $HST$ sample and find $f_{\rm nuc} =~ $100/149 (= 67 $\pm$ 7 per cent), confirming previous work, with a peak value of 49/56~(= $88 \pm 13$ per cent) at bulge masses $M_{*,\rm bulge} \sim 10^{9.4}$- $10^{10.8}~\rm M_{sun}$. We identify 30 nucleated LeMMINGs galaxies that are optically active, radio-detected and X-ray luminous ($L_{X} > 10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$). This indicates that our nucleated sample has a lower limit $\sim$ 30 per cent occupancy of hybrid nuclei, which is a function of $M_{*,\rm bulge}$ and $M_{*,\rm gal}$. We find that hybrid nuclei have a number density of $(1.5 \pm 0.4) \times 10^{-5}$ Mpc$^{-3}$., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (21 pages, 10 figures, 9 tables)

We present 1.8 years of near-daily Swift monitoring of the bright, strongly variable Type 1 AGN Fairall 9. Totaling 575 successful visits, this is the largest such campaign reported to date. Variations within the UV/optical are well-correlated, with longer wavelengths lagging shorter wavelengths in the direction predicted by thin disk/lamp-post models. The correlations are improved by detrending; subtracting a second-order polynomial fit to the UV/optical light curves to remove long-term trends that are not of interest to this study. Extensive testing indicates detrending with higher-order polynomials removes too much intrinsic variability signal on reverberation timescales. These data provide the clearest detection to date of interband lags within the UV, indicating that neither emission from a large disk nor diffuse continuum emission from the broad-line region can independently explain the full observed lag spectrum. The observed X-ray flux variations are poorly correlated with those in the UV/optical. Further, subdivision of the data into four ~160 day light curves shows that the UV/optical lag spectrum is highly stable throughout the four periods, but the X-ray to UV lags are unstable, significantly changing magnitude and even direction from one period to the next. This indicates the X-ray to UV relationship is more complex than predicted by the simple reprocessing model often adopted for AGN. A bowl model (lamp-post irradiation and blackbody reprocessing on a disk with a steep rim) fit suggests the disk thickens at a distance (~10 lt-day) and temperature (~8000K) consistent with the inner edge of the BLR., Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, to appear in ApJ

Multiwavelength studies indicate that nuclear activity and bulge properties are closely related, but the details remain unclear. To study this further, we combine $Hubble~Space~Telescope$ bulge structural and photometric properties with 1.5 GHz, $e$-MERLIN nuclear radio continuum data from the LeMMINGs survey for a large sample of 173 `active' galaxies (LINERs and Seyferts) and `inactive' galaxies (H IIs and absorption line galaxies, ALGs). Dividing our sample into active and inactive, they define distinct (radio core luminosity)$-$(bulge mass), L_R,core-M_*,bulge, relations, with a mass turnover at M_*, bulge ~ 10^(9.8 +- 0.3) M_sun (supermassive black hole mass M_BH ~ 10^(6.8 +- 0.3) M_sun), which marks the transition from AGN-dominated nuclear radio emission in more massive bulges to that mainly driven by stellar processes in low-mass bulges. None of our 10/173 bulgeless galaxies host an AGN. The AGN fraction increases with increasing M_*, bulge such that f_optical_AGN $\propto$ M_*,bulge^(0.24 +- 0.06) and f_radio_AGN $\propto$ M_*,bulge^(0.24 +- 0.05). Between M_*,bulge ~ 10^8.5 and 10^11.3 M_sun, f_optical_AGN steadily rises from 15 +- 4 to 80 +- 5 per cent. We find that at fixed bulge mass, the radio loudness, nuclear radio activity and the (optical and radio) AGN fraction exhibit no dependence on environment. Radio-loud hosts preferentially possess an early-type morphology than radio-quiet hosts, the two types are however indistinguishable in terms of bulge S\'ersic index and ellipticity, while results on the bulge inner logarithmic profile slope are inconclusive. We finally discuss the importance of bulge mass in determining the AGN triggering processes, including potential implications for the nuclear radio emission in nearby galaxies., Comment: 27 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

[Abridged] We use high-resolution $HST$ imaging and $e$-MERLIN 1.5-GHz observations of galaxy cores from the LeMMINGs survey to investigate the relation between optical structural properties and nuclear radio emission for a large sample of galaxies. We perform accurate, multi-component decompositions of new surface brightness profiles extracted from $HST$ images for 163 LeMMINGs galaxies and fit up to six galaxy components (e.g., bulges, discs, AGN, bars, rings, spiral arms, and nuclear star clusters) simultaneously with S\'ersic and/or core-S\'ersic models. By adding such decomposition data for 10 LeMMINGs galaxies from our past work, the final sample of 173 nearby galaxies (102 Ss, 42 S0s, 23 Es plus 6 Irr) with bulge stellar mass (typically) M_*, bulge ~ 10^6-10^12.5 M_sun, encompasses all optical spectral classes (LINER, Seyfert, ALG and H II). We show that the bulge mass can be significantly overestimated in many galaxies when components such as bars, rings and spirals are not included in the fits. We additionally implement a Monte Carlo method to determine errors on bulge, disc and other fitted structural parameters. Moving (in the opposite direction) across the Hubble sequence, i.e., from the irregular to elliptical galaxies, we confirm that bulges become larger, more prominent and round. Such bulge dominance is associated with a brighter radio core luminosity. We also find that the radio detection fraction increases with bulge mass. At M_*,bulge > 10^11 M_sun, the radio detection fraction is 77%, declining to 24% for M_bulge < 10^10 M_sun. Furthermore, we observe core-S\'ersic bulges tend to be systematically round and to possess high radio core luminosities and boxy-distorted or pure elliptical isophotes., Comment: 102 pages, 26 figures, 10 tables, accepted for publication in A&A

We study accretion disk-corona connection in Seyfert 1 galaxies using simultaneous UV/X-ray observations of NGC 4593 (July 14-18, 2016) and NGC 7469 (October 15-19, 2017) performed with AstroSat. We use the X-ray (0.5-7.0 keV) data acquired with the Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) and the UV (FUV: 130-180 nm, NUV: 200-300 nm) data obtained with the Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT). We also use the contemporaneous Swift observations of NGC 4593 and demonstrate AstroSat's capability for X-ray/UV correlation studies. We performed UV/X-ray cross-correlation analysis using the Interpolated and the Discrete Cross-Correlation Functions and found similar results. In the case of NGC 4593, we found that the variations in the X-rays lead to those in the FUV and NUV bands by ~ 38 ks and ~ 44 ks, respectively. These UV lags favour the disk reprocessing model, they are consistent with the previous results within uncertainties. In contrast, we found an opposite trend in NGC 7469 where the soft X-ray variations lag those in the FUV and NUV bands by ~ 41 ks and ~ 49 ks, respectively. The hard lags in NGC 7469 favour the Thermal Comptonization model. Our results may provide direct observational evidence for the variable intrinsic UV emission from the accretion disk which acts as the seed for thermal Comptonization in a hot corona in a lamp-post like geometry. The non-detection of disk reverberation photons in NGC 7469, using AstroSat data, is most likely due to a high accretion rate resulting in a hot accretion disk and large intrinsic emission., Comment: 14 pages, 20 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present fast (~200s sampling) ugriz photometry of the low mass AGN NGC 4395 with the Liverpool Telescope, followed by very fast (3s sampling) us, gs, rs, is and zs simultaneous monitoring with HiPERCAM on the 10.4m GTC. These observations provide the fastest ever AGN multiband photometry and very precise lag measurements. Unlike in all other AGN, gs lags us by a large amount, consistent with disc reprocessing but not with reprocessing in the Broad Line Region (BLR). There is very little increase in lag with wavelength at long wavelengths, indicating an outer edge (Rout) to the reprocessor. We have compared truncated disc reprocessing models to the combined HiPERCAM and previous X-ray/UV lags. For the normally accepted mass of 3.6E5 solar, we obtain reasonable agreement with zero spin, Rout ~1700 Rg, and the DONE physically-motivated temperature-dependent disc colour correction factor (fcol). A smaller mass of 4E4 solar can only be accomodated if fcol=2.4, which is probably unrealistically high. Disc self gravity is probably unimportant in this low mass AGN but an obscuring wind may provide an edge. For the small mass the dust sublimation radius is similar to Rout, so the wind could be dusty. However for the more likely large mass the sublimation radius is further out so the optically-thick base of a line-driven gaseous wind is more likely. The inner edge of the BLR is close to Rout in both cases. These observations provide the first good evidence for a truncated AGN disc and caution that truncation should be included in reverberation lag modelling., Comment: 19 pages, 27 figures

We have measured the wavelength-dependent lags between the X-ray, UV and optical bands in the high accretion rate ($L/L_{\rm Edd}\approx40\%$) Active Galactic Nucleus Mrk 110 during two intensive monitoring campaigns in February and September 2019. We divide the observations into three intervals with different X-ray luminosities. The first interval, already published in Vincentelli et al. (2021), has the lowest X-ray luminosity and did not exhibit the U-band excess positive lag, or the X-ray excess negative lag that is seen in most AGN. However, these excess lags are seen in the two subsequent intervals of higher X-ray luminosity. Although the data are limited, the excess lags appear to scale with X-ray luminosity. Our modelling shows that lags expected from reprocessing of X-rays by the accretion disc vary hardly at all with increasing luminosity. Therefore, as the U-band excess almost certainly arises from Balmer continuum emission from the broad line region (BLR), we attribute these lag changes to changes in the contribution from the BLR. The change is easily explained by the usual increase in the inner radius of the BLR with increasing ionising luminosity., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters

All 280 of the statistically-complete Palomar sample of nearby (<120 Mpc) galaxies dec > 20 degrees have been observed at 1.5 GHz as part of the LeMMINGs e-MERLIN legacy survey. Here, we present Chandra X-ray observations of the nuclei of 213 of these galaxies, including a statistically-complete sub-set of 113 galaxies in the declination range 40 degrees to 65 degrees. We observed galaxies of all optical spectral types, including 'active' galaxies (e.g., LINERs and Seyferts) and 'inactive' galaxies like HII galaxies and absorption line galaxies (ALG). The X-ray flux limit of our survey is 1.65$\times$10$^{-14}$~erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ (0.3$-$10 keV). We detect X-ray emission coincident within 2-arcsec of the nucleus in 150/213 galaxies, including 13/14 Seyferts, 68/77 LINERs, 13/22 ALGs and 56/100 HII galaxies, but cannot completely rule out contamination from non-AGN processes in sources with nuclear luminosities <10$^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$. We construct an X-ray Luminosity function (XLF) and find that the local galaxy XLF, when including all AGN types, can be represented as a single power-law of slope $-0.54 \pm 0.06$. The Eddington ratio of the Seyferts is usually 2-4 decades higher than that of the LINERs, ALGs and HII galaxies, which are mostly detected with Eddington ratios <10$^{-3}$. Using [O III] line measurements and BH masses from the literature, we show that LINERs, HII galaxies and ALGs follow similar correlations to low luminosities, suggesting that some 'inactive' galaxies may harbour AGN., Comment: 20 pages + 42 pages of online supplementary material 15 figures, 7 tables (additional 150 figures and 6 tables in online supplementary material) Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 15th November 2021

What determines the nuclear radio emission in local galaxies? We combine optical [O III] line emission, robust black hole (BH) mass estimates, and high-resolution e-MERLIN 1.5-GHz data, from the LeMMINGs survey, of a statistically-complete sample of 280 nearby, optically active (LINER and Seyfert) and inactive HII and Absorption line galaxies [ALG]) galaxies. Using [O III] luminosity ($L_{\rm [O~III]}$) as a proxy for the accretion power, local galaxies follow distinct sequences in the optical-radio planes of BH activity, which suggest different origins of the nuclear radio emission for the optical classes. The 1.5-GHz radio luminosity of their parsec-scale cores ($L_{\rm core}$) is found to scale with BH mass ($M_{\rm BH}$) and [O~III] luminosity. Below $M_{\rm BH} \sim$10$^{6.5}$ M$_{\odot}$, stellar processes from non-jetted HII galaxies dominate with $L_{\rm core} \propto M_{\rm BH}^{0.61\pm0.33}$ and $L_{\rm core} \propto L_{\rm [O~III]}^{0.79\pm0.30}$. Above $M_{\rm BH} \sim$10$^{6.5}$ M$_{\odot}$, accretion-driven processes dominate with $L_{\rm core} \propto M_{\rm BH}^{1.5-1.65}$ and $L_{\rm core} \propto L_{\rm [O~III]}^{0.99-1.31}$ for active galaxies: radio-quiet/loud LINERs, Seyferts and jetted HII galaxies always display (although low) signatures of radio-emitting BH activity, with $L_{\rm 1.5\, GHz}\gtrsim$10$^{19.8}$ W Hz$^{-1}$ and $M_{\rm BH}\gtrsim10^{7}$ M$_{\odot}$, on a broad range of Eddington-scaled accretion rates ($\dot{m}$). Radio-quiet and radio-loud LINERs are powered by low-$\dot{m}$ discs launching sub-relativistic and relativistic jets, respectively. Low-power slow jets and disc/corona winds from moderately high to high-$\dot{m}$ discs account for the compact and edge-brightened jets of Seyferts, respectively. Jetted HII galaxies may host weakly active BHs. Fuel-starved BHs and recurrent activity account for ALG properties. [abridged], Comment: Accpeted for publication on MNRAS (27 pages, 9 Figures, 3 Tables, Appendix A)

The origin of the radio emission in radio-quiet quasars (RQQs) remains unclear. Radio emission may be produced by a scaled-down version of the relativistic jets observed in radio-loud (RL) AGN, an AGN-driven wind, the accretion disc corona, AGN photon-ionisation of ambient gas (free-free emission), or star formation (SF). Here, we report a pilot study, part of a radio survey (`PG-RQS') aiming at exploring the spectral distributions of the 71 Palomar-Green (PG) RQQs: high angular resolution observations ($\sim$50 mas) at 45~GHz (7 mm) with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array of 15 sources. Sub-mJy radio cores are detected in 13 sources on a typical scale of $\sim$100 pc, which excludes significant contribution from galaxy-scale SF. For 9 sources the 45-GHz luminosity is above the lower frequency ($\sim$1-10 GHz) spectral extrapolation, indicating the emergence of an additional flatter-spectrum compact component at high frequencies. The X-ray luminosity and black hole (BH) mass, correlate more tightly with the 45-GHz luminosity than the 5-GHz. The 45 GHz-based radio-loudness increases with decreasing Eddington ratio and increasing BH mass M$_{\rm BH}$. These results suggest that the 45-GHz emission from PG RQQs nuclei originates from the innermost region of the core, probably from the accretion disc corona. Increasing contributions to 45-GHz emission from a jet at higher M$_{\rm BH}$ and lower Eddington ratios and from a disc wind at large Eddington ratios are still consistent with our results. Future full radio spectral coverage of the sample will help us investigating the different physical mechanisms in place in RQQ cores., Comment: Accepted for publication on MNRAS (17 pages, 9 figures)

We use ultraviolet imaging taken with the XMM-Newton Optical Monitor telescope (XMM-OM), covering 280 square arcminutes in the UVW1 band (effective wavelength 2910 Angstroms) to measure rest-frame ultraviolet (1500 Angstrom) luminosity functions of galaxies with redshifts z between 0.6 and 1.2. The XMM-OM data are supplemented by a large body of optical and infrared imaging to provide photometric redshifts. The XMM-OM data have a significantly narrower point-spread-function (resulting in less source confusion) and simpler K-correction than the GALEX data previously employed in this redshift range. Ultraviolet-bright active galactic nuclei are excluded to ensure that the luminosity functions relate directly to the star-forming galaxy population. Binned luminosity functions and parametric Schechter-function fits are derived in two redshift intervals: 0.6

We present the first intensive continuum reverberation mapping study of the high accretion rate Seyfert galaxy Mrk 110. The source was monitored almost daily for more than 200 days with the Swift X-ray and UV/optical telescopes, supported by ground-based observations from Las Cumbres Observatory, the Liverpool Telescope, and the Zowada Observatory, thus extending the wavelength coverage to 9100 \r{A}. Mrk 110 was found to be significantly variable at all wavebands. Analysis of the intraband lags reveals two different behaviours, depending on the timescale. On timescales shorter than 10 days the lags, relative to the shortest UV waveband ($\sim1928$ \r{A}), increase with increasing wavelength up to a maximum of $\sim2$days lag for the longest waveband ($\sim9100$ \r{A}), consistent with the expectation from disc reverberation. On longer timescales, however, the g-band lags the Swift BAT hard X-rays by $\sim10$ days, with the z-band lagging the g-band by a similar amount, which cannot be explained in terms of simple reprocessing from the accretion disc. We interpret this result as an interplay between the emission from the accretion disc and diffuse continuum radiation from the broad line region., Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present the second data release of high-resolution ($\leq0.2$ arcsec) 1.5-GHz radio images of 177 nearby galaxies from the Palomar sample, observed with the e-MERLIN array, as part of the LeMMINGs (Legacy e-MERLIN Multi-band Imaging of Nearby Galaxy Sample) survey. Together with the 103 targets of the first LeMMINGs data release, this represents a complete sample of 280 local active (LINER and Seyfert) and inactive galaxies HII galaxies and Absorption Line Galaxies, ALG). This large program is the deepest radio survey of the local Universe, $\gtrsim$10$^{17.6}$ W Hz$^{-1}$, regardless of the host and nuclear type: we detect radio emission $\gtrsim$0.25 mJy beam$^{-1}$ for 125/280 galaxies (44.6 per cent) with sizes of typically $\lesssim$100 pc. Of those 125, 106 targets show a core which coincides within 1.2 arcsec with the optical nucleus. Although we observed mostly cores, around one third of the detected galaxies features jetted morphologies. The detected radio core luminosities of the sample range between $\sim$10$^{34}$ and 10$^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$. LINERs and Seyferts are the most luminous sources, whereas HII galaxies are the least. LINERs show FRI-like core-brightened radio structures, while Seyferts reveal the highest fraction of symmetric morphologies. The majority of HII galaxies have single radio core or complex extended structures, which probably conceal a nuclear starburst and/or a weak active nucleus (seven of them show clear jets). ALGs, which are typically found in evolved ellipticals, although the least numerous, exhibit on average the most luminous radio structures, similar to LINERs., Comment: Accepted for publication on MNRAS (48 pages, 7 figures, 10 tables, Appendix)

In 2014 the NGC 5548 Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping campaign discovered a two-month anomaly when variations in the absorption and emission lines decorrelated from continuum variations. During this time the soft X-ray part of the intrinsic spectrum had been strongly absorbed by a line-of-sight (LOS) obscurer, which was interpreted as the upper part of a disk wind. Our first paper showed that changes in the LOS obscurer produce the decorrelation between the absorption lines and the continuum. A second study showed that the base of the wind shields the BLR, leading to the emission-line decorrelation. In that study, we proposed the wind is normally transparent with no effect on the spectrum. Changes in the wind properties alter its shielding and affect the SED striking the BLR, producing the observed decorrelations. In this work, we investigate the impact of a translucent wind on the emission lines. We simulate the obscuration using XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and HST observations to determine the physical characteristics of the wind. We find that a translucent wind can contribute a part of the He II and Fe K? emission. It has a modest optical depth to electron scattering, which explains the fainter far-side emission in the observed velocity delay maps. The wind produces the very broad base seen in the UV emission lines and may also be present in the Fe K? line. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for the effects of such winds in the analysis of the physics of the central engine., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

A thorough study of radio emission in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is of fundamental importance to understand the physical mechanisms responsible for the emission and the interplay between accretion and ejection processes. High frequency radio observations can target the nuclear contribution of smaller emitting regions and are less affected by absorption. We present JVLA 22 and 45 GHz observations of 16 nearby (0.003$\le$z$\le$0.3) hard - X-rays selected AGN at the (sub)-kpc scale with tens uJy beam$^{-1}$ sensitivity. We detected 15/16 sources, with flux densities ranging from hundreds uJy beam$^{-1}$ to tens Jy (specific luminosities from $\sim$10$^{20}$ to $\sim$10$^{25}\,W\,Hz^{-1}$ at 22 GHz). All detected sources host a compact core, with 8 being core-dominated at either frequencies, the others exhibiting also extended structures. Spectral indices range from steep to flat/inverted. We interpret this evidence as either due to a core+jet system (6/15), a core accompanied by surrounding star formation (1/15), to a jet oriented close to the line of sight (3/15), to emission from a corona or the base of a jet (1/15), although there might be degeneracies between different processes. Four sources require more data to shed light on their nature. We conclude that, at these frequencies, extended, optically-thin components are present together with the flat-spectrum core. The ${L_R}/{L_X}\sim10^{-5}$ relation is roughly followed, indicating a possible contribution to radio emission from a hot corona. A weakly significant correlation between radio core (22 and 45 GHz) and X-rays luminosities is discussed in the light of an accretion-ejection framework., Comment: Accepted for publication on MNRAS

We present an overview and description of the eMERLIN Galaxy Evolution survey (eMERGE) Data Release 1 (DR1), a large program of high-resolution 1.5 GHz radio observations of the GOODS-N field comprising $\sim140$ hours of observations with eMERLIN and $\sim40$ hours with the Very Large Array (VLA). We combine the long baselines of eMERLIN (providing high angular resolution) with the relatively closely-packed antennas of the VLA (providing excellent surface brightness sensitivity) to produce a deep 1.5 GHz radio survey with the sensitivity ($\sim 1.5\mu$Jy beam$^{-1}$), angular resolution ($0.2"$--$0.7"$) and field-of-view ($\sim15' \times 15'$) to detect and spatially resolve star-forming galaxies and AGN at $z\gtrsim 1$. The goal of eMERGE is to provide new constraints on the deep, sub-arcsecond radio sky which will be surveyed by SKA1-mid. In this initial publication, we discuss our data analysis techniques, including steps taken to model in-beam source variability over a $\sim20$ year baseline and the development of new point spread function/primary beam models to seamlessly merge eMERLIN and VLA data in the $uv$ plane. We present early science results, including measurements of the luminosities and/or linear sizes of $\sim500$ galaxes selected at 1.5 GHz. In combination with deep Hubble Space Telescope observations, we measure a mean radio-to-optical size ratio of $r_{\rm eMERGE}/r_{\rm HST}\sim1.02\pm0.03$, suggesting that in most high-redshift galaxies, the $\sim$GHz continuum emission traces the stellar light seen in optical imaging. This is the first in a series of papers which will explore the $\sim$kpc-scale radio properties of star-forming galaxies and AGN in the GOODS-N field observed by eMERGE DR1., Comment: 21 pages, 12 colour figures, 3 tables -- accepted for publication in MNRAS

A key characteristic of many active galactic nuclei (AGN) is their variability, but its origin is poorly understood, especially in the radio domain. Williams et al. (2017) reported a ~50 per cent increase in peak flux density of the AGN in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 at 1.5 GHz with the e-MERLIN array. We present new high resolution e-MERLIN observations at 5 GHz and compare these to archival MERLIN observations to investigate the reported variability. Our new observations allow us to probe the nuclear region at a factor three times higher-resolution than the previous e-MERLIN study. We separate the core component, C4, into three separate components: C4W, C4E and X. The AGN is thought to reside in component C4W, but this component has remained constant between epochs within uncertainties. However, we find that the Eastern-most component, C4E, has increased in peak flux density from 19.35$\pm$1.10 to 37.09$\pm$1.86 mJy/beam, representing a 8.2 sigma increase on the MERLIN observations. We attribute this peak flux density increase to continued interaction between the jet and the emission line region (ELR), observed for the first time in a low-luminosity AGN such as NGC 4151. We identify discrete resolved components at 5 GHz along the jet axis, which we interpret as areas of jet-ELR interaction., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, accepted to MNRAS

Submillimetre-selected galaxies (SMGs) at high redshift ($z$ $\sim$ 2) are potential host galaxies of active galactic nuclei (AGN). If the local Universe is a good guide, $\sim$ 50$\%$ of the obscured AGN amongst the SMG population could be missed even in the deepest X-ray surveys. Radio observations are insensitive to obscuration; therefore, very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) can be used as a tool to identify AGN in obscured systems. A well-established upper limit to the brightness temperature of 10$^5$ K exists in star-forming systems, thus VLBI observations can distinguish AGN from star-forming systems via brightness temperature measurements. We present 1.6 GHz European VLBI Network (EVN) observations of four SMGs (with measured redshifts) to search for evidence of compact radio components associated with AGN cores. For two of the sources, e-MERLIN images are also presented. Out of the four SMGs observed, we detect one source, J123555.14, that has an integrated EVN flux density of 201 $\pm$ 15.2 $\mu$Jy, corresponding to a brightness temperature of 5.2 $\pm$ 0.7 $\times$ 10$^5$ K. We therefore identify that the radio emission from J123555.14 is associated with an AGN. We do not detect compact radio emission from a possible AGN in the remaining sources (J123600.10, J131225.73, and J163650.43). In the case of J131225.73, this is particularly surprising, and the data suggest that this may be an extended, jet-dominated AGN that is resolved by VLBI. Since the morphology of the faint radio source population is still largely unknown at these scales, it is possible that with a $\sim$ 10 mas resolution, VLBI misses (or resolves) many radio AGN extended on kiloparsec scales., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures

We broadly explore the effects of systematic errors on reverberation mapping lag uncertainty estimates from {\tt JAVELIN} and the interpolated cross-correlation function (ICCF) method. We focus on simulated lightcurves from random realizations of the lightcurves of five intensively monitored AGNs. Both methods generally work well even in the presence of systematic errors, although {\tt JAVELIN} generally provides better error estimates. Poorly estimated lightcurve uncertainties have less effect on the ICCF method because, unlike {\tt JAVELIN}, it does not explicitly assume Gaussian statistics. Neither method is sensitive to changes in the stochastic process driving the continuum or the transfer function relating the line lightcurve to the continuum. The only systematic error we considered that causes significant problems is if the line lightcurve is not a smoothed and shifted version of the continuum lightcurve but instead contains some additional sources of variability., Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures

We model the ultraviolet spectra of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC~5548 obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope during the 6-month reverberation-mapping campaign in 2014. Our model of the emission from NGC 5548 corrects for overlying absorption and deblends the individual emission lines. Using the modeled spectra, we measure the response to continuum variations for the deblended and absorption-corrected individual broad emission lines, the velocity-dependent profiles of Ly$\alpha$ and C IV, and the narrow and broad intrinsic absorption features. We find that the time lags for the corrected emission lines are comparable to those for the original data. The velocity-binned lag profiles of Ly$\alpha$ and C IV have a double-peaked structure indicative of a truncated Keplerian disk. The narrow absorption lines show delayed response to continuum variations corresponding to recombination in gas with a density of $\sim 10^5~\rm cm^{-3}$. The high-ionization narrow absorption lines decorrelate from continuum variations during the same period as the broad emission lines. Analyzing the response of these absorption lines during this period shows that the ionizing flux is diminished in strength relative to the far-ultraviolet continuum. The broad absorption lines associated with the X-ray obscurer decrease in strength during this same time interval. The appearance of X-ray obscuration in $\sim\,2012$ corresponds with an increase in the luminosity of NGC 5548 following an extended low state. We suggest that the obscurer is a disk wind triggered by the brightening of NGC 5548 following the decrease in size of the broad-line region during the preceding low-luminosity state., Comment: 50 pages, 30 figures, uses aastex62.cls. Accepted for publication in ApJ, 07/06/2019. High-level products page in MAST will go live after 7/15/2019. Replaced Figure 4 on 7/12/2019 to be more red/green color-blind friendly

We present the long term, frequency-dependent, X-ray time lags of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4051. We used Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer light curves in the 2-4, 4-7 and 7-10 keV bands and we measured the time-lags at $10^{-7}-10^{-6}$ Hz. This is the lowest frequency range that AGN time-lags have ever been measured. The variations in the higher energy bands are delayed with respect to the variations we observe at 2-4 keV, in agreement with the time-lags at high frequencies. When we combine our results with those from the model fitting of the time lags at higher frequencies we find that that the X-ray hard lags in NGC 4051 follow a power law of slope $\sim -1$ over a broad frequency range, from $\sim 10^{-7}$ to $\sim 10^{-3}$ Hz. This is consistent with the time-lags of Cyg X-1, a result which further supports the analogy between active galaxies and Galactic X-ray black hole binaries., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The $e$MERLIN Galaxy Evolution Survey ($e$MERGE) is an ambitious, multi-tiered extragalactic radio continuum survey being carried out with $e$MERLIN and the VLA at 1.4GHz and 6GHz. Exploiting the unique combination of high sensitivity and high angular resolution provided by radio interferometry, these observations will provide a powerful, obscuration-independent tool for tracing intense star-formation and AGN activity in galaxies out to $z\sim5$. In our first data release (DR1) we present $e$MERGE Tier 1, a 15-arcmin pointing centred on the GOODS-N field, imaged at 1.4GHz with the VLA and $e$MERLIN at $\sim 0.28''$ resolution down to an rms sensitivity of $\sim 1.2\,\mu$Jy beam$^{-1}$. This unique radio survey -- unrivaled at 1.4GHz in its combination of depth, areal coverage and angular resolution in the pre-SKA era -- allows us to localise and separate extended star-forming regions, nuclear starbursts and compact AGN core/jet systems in galaxies over the past two-thirds of cosmic history, a crucial step in tracing the apparently simultaneous growths of the stellar populations and central black holes in massive galaxies. In these proceedings we highlight some early science results from $e$MERGE DR1, including some examples of the sub-arcsecond morphologies and cold dust properties of 1.4GHz-selected galaxies. $e$MERGE Tier 1 will eventually reach sub-$\mu$Jy beam$^{-1}$ sensitivity at $0.28''$ resolution over a 30-arcmin field, providing crucial benchmarks for deep extragalactic surveys which will be undertaken with SKA in the next decade., Comment: 6 Pages, 3 figures, published in proceedings from the 14th European VLBI Network Symposium and Users Meeting

We present the X-ray spectral and timing analysis of the transient black hole X-ray binary 4U 1630-47, observed with the AstroSat, Chandra and MAXI space missions during its soft X-ray outburst in 2016. The outburst, from the rising phase until the peak, is neither detected in hard X-rays (15-50 keV) by the Swift/BAT nor in radio. Such non-detection along with the source behavior in the hardness-intensity and color-color diagrams obtained using MAXI data confirm that both Chandra and AstroSat observations were performed during the high soft spectral state. The High Energy Grating (HEG) spectrum from the Chandra high-energy transmission grating spectrometer (HETGS) shows two strong, moderately blueshifted absorption lines at 6.705$_{-0.002}^{+0.002}$ keV and 6.974$_{-0.003}^{+0.004}$ keV, which are produced by Fe XXV and Fe XXVI in a low-velocity ionized disk wind. The corresponding outflow velocity is determined to be 366$\pm$56 km/s. Separate spectral fits of Chandra/HEG, AstroSat/SXT+LAXPC and Chandra/HEG + AstroSat/SXT+LAXPC data show that the broadband continuum can be well described with a relativistic disk-blackbody model, with the disk flux fraction of $\sim 0.97$. Based on the best-fit continuum spectral modeling of Chandra, AstroSat and Chandra+AstroSat joint spectra and using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations, we constrain the spectral hardening factor at 1.56$^{+0.14}_{-0.06}$ and the dimensionless black hole spin parameter at 0.92 $\pm$ 0.04 within the 99.7% confidence interval. Our conclusion of a rapidly-spinning black hole in 4U 1630-47 using the continuum spectrum method is in agreement with a previous finding applying the reflection spectral fitting method., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

We present the results of simultaneous Suzaku and NuSTAR observations of the nearest Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nucleus (LLAGN), M81*. The spectrum is well described by a cut-off power law plus narrow emission lines from Fe K$\alpha$, Fe XXV and Fe XXVI. There is no evidence of Compton reflection from an optically thick disc, and we obtain the strongest constraint on the reflection fraction in M81* to date, with a best-fit value of $R = 0.0$ with an upper limit of $R < 0.1$. The Fe K$\alpha$ line may be produced in optically thin, $N_H = 1 \times 10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$, gas located in the equatorial plane that could be the broad line region. The ionized iron lines may originate in the hot, inner accretion flow. The X-ray continuum shows significant variability on $\sim 40$ ks timescales suggesting that the primary X-ray source is $\sim 100$s of gravitational radii in size. If this X-ray source illuminates any putative optically thick disc, the weakness of reflection implies that such a disc lies outside a few $\times 10^3$ gravitational radii. An optically thin accretion flow inside a truncated optically thick disc appears to be a common feature of LLAGN that are accreting at only a tiny fraction of the Eddington limit., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, to appear in MNARS

We studied the nearby, interacting galaxy NGC 5195 (M51b) in the radio, optical and X-ray bands. We mapped the extended, low-surface-brightness features of its radio-continuum emission; determined the energy content of its complex structure of shock-ionized gas; constrained the current activity level of its supermassive nuclear black hole. In particular, we combined data from the European Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network (~1-pc scale), from our new e-MERLIN observations (~10-pc scale), and from the Very Large Array (~100-1000-pc scale), to obtain a global picture of energy injection in this galaxy. We put an upper limit to the luminosity of the (undetected) flat-spectrum radio core. We find steep-spectrum, extended emission within 10 pc of the nuclear position, consistent with optically-thin synchrotron emission from nuclear star formation or from an outflow powered by an active galactic nucleus (AGN). A linear spur of radio emission juts out of the nuclear source towards the kpc-scale arcs (detected in radio, Halpha and X-ray bands). From the size, shock velocity, and Balmer line luminosity of the kpc-scale bubble, we estimate that it was inflated by a long-term-average mechanical power ~3-6 x 10^{41} erg/s over the last 3-6 Myr. This is an order of magnitude more power than can be provided by the current level of star formation, and by the current accretion power of the supermassive black hole. We argue that a jet-inflated bubble scenario associated with previous episodes of AGN activity is the most likely explanation for the kpc-scale structures., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. Accepted by MNRAS on 2017 Feb 12

We present the first data release of high-resolution ($\leq0.2$ arcsec) 1.5-GHz radio images of 103 nearby galaxies from the Palomar sample, observed with the eMERLIN array, as part of the LeMMINGs survey. This sample includes galaxies which are active (LINER and Seyfert) and quiescent (HII galaxies and Absorption line galaxies, ALG), which are reclassified based upon revised emission-line diagrams. We detect radio emission $\gtrsim$ 0.2 mJy for 47/103 galaxies (22/34 for LINERS, 4/4 for Seyferts, 16/51 for HII galaxies and 5/14 for ALGs) with radio sizes typically of $\lesssim$100 pc. We identify the radio core position within the radio structures for 41 sources. Half of the sample shows jetted morphologies. The remaining half shows single radio cores or complex morphologies. LINERs show radio structures more core-brightened than Seyferts. Radio luminosities of the sample range from 10$^{32}$ to 10$^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$: LINERs and HII galaxies show the highest and the lowest radio powers respectively, while ALGs and Seyferts have intermediate luminosities. We find that radio core luminosities correlate with black hole (BH) mass down to $\sim$10$^{7}$ M$_{\odot}$, but a break emerges at lower masses. Using [O III] line luminosity as a proxy for the accretion luminosity, active nuclei and jetted HII galaxies follow an optical fundamental plane of BH activity, suggesting a common disc-jet relationship. In conclusion, LINER nuclei are the scaled-down version of FR I radio galaxies; Seyferts show less collimated jets; HII galaxies may host weak active BHs and/or nuclear star-forming cores; and recurrent BH activity may account for ALG properties., Comment: accepted for publication on MNRAS (45 pages, 10 figures with reduced image quality)

We report the results of intensive X-ray, UV and optical monitoring of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4593 with Swift. There is no intrinsic flux-related spectral change in the the variable components in any band with small apparent variations due only to contamination by a second constant component, possibly a (hard) reflection component in the X-rays and the (red) host galaxy in the UV/optical bands. Relative to the shortest wavelength band, UVW2, the lags of the other UV and optical bands are mostly in agreement with the predictions of reprocessing of high energy emission from an accretion disc. The U-band lag is, however, far larger than expected, almost certainly because of reprocessed Balmer continuum emission from the more distant broad line region gas. The UVW2 band is well correlated with the X-rays but lags by ~6x more than expected if the UVW2 results from reprocessing of X-rays on the accretion disc. However, if the lightcurves are filtered to remove variations on timescales >5d, the lag approaches the expectation from disc reprocessing. MEMEcho analysis shows that direct X-rays can be the driver of most of the variations in the UV/optical bands as long as the response functions for those bands all have long tails (up to 10d) in addition to a strong peak (from disc reprocessing) at short lag (<1d). We interpret the tails as due to reprocessing from the surrounding gas. Comparison of X-ray to UVW2 and UVW2 to V-band lags for 4 AGN, including NGC 4593, shows that all have UVW2 to V-band lags which exceed the expectations from disc resprocessing by factor < 2. However the X-ray to UVW2 lags are, mostly, in greater excess from the expectations from disc reprocessing and differ between AGN. The largest excess is in NGC 4151. Absorption and scattering may be affecting X-ray to UV lags., Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures. Submitted to Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

List of contributions from the Cherenkov Telescope Array Consortium presented at the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference, July 12-20 2017, Busan, Korea., Comment: Index of Cherenkov Telescope Array conference proceedings at the ICRC2017, Busan, Korea

We present high-sensitivity eMERLIN radio images of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 at 1.5 GHz. We compare the new eMERLIN images to those from archival MERLIN observations in 1993 to determine the change in jet morphology in the 22 years between observations. We report an increase by almost a factor of 2 in the peak flux density of the central core component, C4, thought to host the black hole, but a probable decrease in some other components, possibly due to adiabatic expansion. The core flux increase indicates an AGN which is currently active and feeding the jet. We detect no significant motion in 22 years between C4 and the component C3, which is unresolved in the eMERLIN image. We present a spectral index image made within the 512 MHz band of the 1.5 GHz observations. The spectrum of the core, C4, is flatter than that of other components further out in the jet. We use HST emission line images (H$\alpha$, [O III] and [O II]) to study the connection between the jet and the emission line region. Based on the changing emission line ratios away from the core and comparison with the eMERLIN radio jet, we conclude that photoionisation from the central AGN is responsible for the observed emission line properties further than 4" (360 pc) from the core, C4. Within this region, several evidences (radio-line co-spatiality, low [O III]/H$\alpha$ and estimated fast shocks) suggest additional ionisation from the jet., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Accepted to MNRAS: MN-17-2603-MJ.R1

We perform the NuSTAR and Swift/XRT joint energy spectral fitting of simultaneous observations from the broad-line Seyfert 1.5 galaxy NGC 5273. When fitted with the combination of an exponential cut-off power-law and a reflection model, a high energy cut-off is detected at 143$^{+96}_{-40}$ keV with 2-sigma significance. Existence of such cut-off is also consistent with the observed Comptonizing electron temperature when fitted with a Comptonization model independently. We observe a moderate hard X-ray variability of the source over the time-scale of ~12 years using INTEGRAL/ISGRI observations in the energy range of 20-100 keV. When the hard band count rate (6-20 keV) is plotted against the soft band count rate (3-6 keV), a hard offset is observed. Our results indicate that the cut-off energy may not correlate with the coronal X-ray luminosity in a simple manner. Similarities in parameters that describe coronal properties indicate that the coronal structure of NGC 5273 may be similar to that of the broad-line radio galaxy 3C 390.3 and another galaxy MCG-5-23-16 where the coronal plasma is dominated by electrons, rather than electron-positron pairs. Therefore, the coronal cooling is equally efficient to the heating mechanism keeping the cut-off energy at low even at the low accretion rate., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRAS

During the Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project (STORM) observations of NGC 5548, the continuum and emission-line variability became de-correlated during the second half of the 6-month long observing campaign. Here we present Swift and Chandra X-ray spectra of NGC 5548 obtained as a part of the campaign. The Swift spectra show that excess flux (relative to a power-law continuum) in the soft X-ray band appears before the start of the anomalous emission-line behavior, peaks during the period of the anomaly, and then declines. This is a model-independent result suggesting that the soft excess is related to the anomaly. We divide the Swift data into on- and off-anomaly spectra to characterize the soft excess via spectral fitting. The cause of the spectral differences is likely due to a change in the intrinsic spectrum rather than being due to variable obscuration or partial covering. The Chandra spectra have lower signal-to-noise ratios, but are consistent with Swift data. Our preferred model of the soft excess is emission from an optically thick, warm Comptonizing corona, the effective optical depth of which increases during the anomaly. This model simultaneously explains all the three observations: the UV emission line flux decrease, the soft-excess increase, and the emission line anomaly., Comment: ApJ in press. Replaced with the accepted version

Swift monitoring of NGC 4151 with ~6 hr sampling over a total of 69 days in early 2016 is used to construct light curves covering five bands in the X-rays (0.3-50 keV) and six in the ultraviolet (UV)/optical (1900-5500 A). The three hardest X-ray bands (>2.5 keV) are all strongly correlated with no measurable interband lag while the two softer bands show lower variability and weaker correlations. The UV/optical bands are significantly correlated with the X-rays, lagging ~3-4 days behind the hard X-rays. The variability within the UV/optical bands is also strongly correlated, with the UV appearing to lead the optical by ~0.5-1 day. This combination of >~3 day lags between the X-rays and UV and <~1 day lags within the UV/optical appears to rule out the "lamp-post" reprocessing model in which a hot, X-ray emitting corona directly illuminates the accretion disk, which then reprocesses the energy in the UV/optical. Instead, these results appear consistent with the Gardner & Done picture in which two separate reprocessings occur: first, emission from the corona illuminates an extreme-UV-emitting toroidal component that shields the disk from the corona; this then heats the extreme-UV component which illuminates the disk and drives its variability., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 7 tables. To appear in ApJ April 2017 issue. This version incorporates minor revisions to conform to published version and corrects the links to the author names above

We present results from a detailed spectral-timing analysis of a long ~486 ks XMM-Newton observation of the bare Seyfert 1 galaxy Ark 120 which showed alternating diminution and increment in the 0.3-10 keV X-ray flux over four consecutive orbits in 2014. We study the energy-dependent variability of Ark 120 through broad-band X-ray spectroscopy, fractional root-mean-squared (rms) spectral modelling, hardness-intensity diagram and flux-flux analysis. The X-ray (0.3-10 keV) spectra are well fitted by a thermally Comptonized primary continuum with two (blurred and distant) reflection components and an optically thick, warm Comptonization component for the soft X-ray excess emission below ~2 keV. During the first and third observations, the fractional X-ray variability amplitude decreases with energy while for second and fourth observations, X-ray variability spectra are found to be inverted-crescent and crescent shaped respectively. The rms variability spectra are well modelled by two constant reflection components, a soft excess component with variable luminosity and a variable intrinsic continuum with the normalization and spectral slope being correlated. The spectral softening of the source with both the soft excess and UV luminosities favour Comptonization models where the soft excess and primary X-ray emission are produced through Compton up-scattering of the UV and UV/soft X-ray seed photons in the putative warm and hot coronae, respectively. Our analyses imply that the observed energy-dependent variability of Ark 120 is most likely due to variations in the spectral shape and luminosity of the hot corona and to variations in the luminosity of the warm corona, both of which are driven by variations in the seed photon flux., Comment: 17 pages, 19 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present the results of an optical spectroscopic monitoring program targeting NGC 5548 as part of a larger multi-wavelength reverberation mapping campaign. The campaign spanned six months and achieved an almost daily cadence with observations from five ground-based telescopes. The H$\beta$ and He II $\lambda$4686 broad emission-line light curves lag that of the 5100 $\AA$ optical continuum by $4.17^{+0.36}_{-0.36}$ days and $0.79^{+0.35}_{-0.34}$ days, respectively. The H$\beta$ lag relative to the 1158 $\AA$ ultraviolet continuum light curve measured by the Hubble Space Telescope is roughly $\sim$50% longer than that measured against the optical continuum, and the lag difference is consistent with the observed lag between the optical and ultraviolet continua. This suggests that the characteristic radius of the broad-line region is $\sim$50% larger than the value inferred from optical data alone. We also measured velocity-resolved emission-line lags for H$\beta$ and found a complex velocity-lag structure with shorter lags in the line wings, indicative of a broad-line region dominated by Keplerian motion. The responses of both the H$\beta$ and He II $\lambda$4686 emission lines to the driving continuum changed significantly halfway through the campaign, a phenomenon also observed for C IV, Ly $\alpha$, He II(+O III]), and Si IV(+O IV]) during the same monitoring period. Finally, given the optical luminosity of NGC 5548 during our campaign, the measured H$\beta$ lag is a factor of five shorter than the expected value implied by the $R_\mathrm{BLR} - L_\mathrm{AGN}$ relation based on the past behavior of NGC 5548., Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, accepted to ApJ

We present high-resolution e-MERLIN radio continuum maps of the Dwarf Irregular galaxy IC10 at 1.5GHz and 5GHz. We detect 11 compact sources at 1.5GHz, 5 of which have complementary detections at 5GHz. We classify 3 extended sources as compact H{\sc ii} regions within IC10, 5 sources as contaminating background galaxies and identify 3 sources which require additional observations to classify. We do not expect that any of these 3 sources are Supernova Remnants as they will likely be resolved out at the assumed distance of IC10 (0.7Mpc). We correct integrated flux densities of IC10 from the literature for contamination by unrelated background sources and obtain updated flux density measurements of $354\pm11$\,mJy at 1.5GHz and $199\pm9$\,mJy at 4.85GHz. The background contamination does not contribute significantly to the overall radio emission from IC10, so previous analysis concerning its integrated radio properties remain valid., Comment: 15 pages, 7 Figures, 5 Tables, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We conduct a multiwavelength continuum variability study of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 to investigate the temperature structure of its accretion disk. The 19 overlapping continuum light curves (1158 to 9157 angstroms) combine simultaneous HST , Swift , and ground-based observations over a 180 day period from 2014 January to July. Light-curve variability is interpreted as the reverberation response of the accretion disk to irradiation by a central time-varying point source. Our model yields the disk inclination, i, temperature T1 at 1 light day from the black hole, and a temperature-radius slope, alpha. We also infer the driving light curve and find that it correlates poorly with both the hard and soft X-ray light curves, suggesting that the X-rays alone may not drive the ultraviolet and optical variability over the observing period. We also decompose the light curves into bright, faint, and mean accretion-disk spectra. These spectra lie below that expected for a standard blackbody accretion disk accreting at L/LEdd = 0.1, Comment: V2: Oops wrong title! V1: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 20 Pages, 11 Figures

List of contributions from the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Consortium presented at the 6th International Symposium on High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy (Gamma 2016), July 11-15, 2016, in Heidelberg, Germany., Comment: Index of CTA conference proceedings for the Gamma 2016, Heidelberg, Germany

Context: Theoretical modelling of time-lags between variations in the Fe K$\alpha$ emission and the X-ray continuum might shed light on the physics and geometry of the X-ray emitting region in active galaxies (AGN) and X-ray binaries. We here present the results from a systematic analysis of time-lags between variations in two energy bands ($5-7$ vs $2-4\,\mathrm{keV}$) for seven X-ray bright and variable AGN. Aims: We estimate time-lags as accurately as possible and fit them with theoretical models in the context of the lamp-post geometry. We also constrain the geometry of the X-ray emitting region in AGN. Methods: We used all available archival \textit{XMM-Newton} data for the sources in our sample and extracted light curves in the $5-7$ and $2-4\,\mathrm{keV}$ energy bands. We used these light curves and applied a thoroughly tested (through extensive numerical simulations) recipe to estimate time-lags that have minimal bias, approximately follow a Gaussian distribution, and have known errors. Using traditional $\chi^2$ minimisation techniques, we then fitted the observed time-lags with two different models: a phenomenological model where the time-lags have a power-law dependence on frequency, and a physical model, using the reverberation time-lags expected in the lamp-post geometry. The latter were computed assuming a point-like primary X-ray source above a black hole surrounded by a neutral and prograde accretion disc with solar iron abundance. We took all relativistic effects into account for various X-ray source heights, inclination angles, and black hole spin values., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A

We present the results of a detailed study of the X-ray power spectra density (PSD) functions of twelve X-ray bright AGN, using almost all the archival XMM-Newton data. The total net exposure of the EPIC-pn light curves is larger than 350 ks in all cases (and exceeds 1 Ms in the case of 1H 0707-497). In a physical scenario in which X-ray reflection occurs in the inner part of the accretion disc of AGN, the X-ray reflection component should be a filtered echo of the X-ray continuum signal and should be equal to the convolution of the primary emission with the response function of the disc. Our primary objective is to search for these reflection features in the 5-7 keV (iron line) and 0.5-1 keV (soft) bands, where the X-ray reflection fraction is expected to be dominant. We fit to the observed periodograms two models: a simple bending power law model (BPL) and a BPL model convolved with the transfer function of the accretion disc assuming the lamp-post geometry and X-ray reflection from a homogeneous disc. We do not find any significant features in the best-fitting BPL model residuals either in individual PSDs in the iron band, soft and full band (0.3-10 keV) or in the average PSD residuals of the brightest and more variable sources (with similar black hole mass estimates). The typical amplitude of the soft and full-band residuals is around 3-5 per cent. It is possible that the expected general relativistic effects are not detected because they are intrinsically lower than the uncertainty of the current PSDs, even in the strong relativistic case in which X-ray reflection occurs on a disc around a fast rotating black hole having an X-ray source very close above it. However, we could place strong constrains to the X-ray reflection geometry with the current data sets if we knew in advance the intrinsic shape of the X-ray PSDs, particularly its high frequency slope., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. The paper is 15 pages long and contains 7 figures and 6 tables

We present a detailed X-ray variability study of the low mass Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) NGC 7314 using the two newly obtained XMM-Newton observations ($140$ and $130$ ks), together with two archival data sets of shorter duration ($45$ and $84$ ks). The relationship between the X-ray variability characteristics and other physical source properties (such as the black hole mass) are still relatively poorly defined, especially for low-mass AGN. We perform a new, fully analytical, power spectral density (PSD) model analysis method, which will be described in detail in a forthcoming paper, that takes into consideration the spectral distortions, caused by red-noise leak. We find that the PSD in the $0.5-10$ keV energy range, can be represented by a bending power-law with a bend around $6.7\times10^{-5}$ Hz, having a slope of $0.51$ and $1.99$ below and above the bend, respectively. Adding our bend time-scale estimate, to an already published ensemble of estimates from several AGN, supports the idea that the bend time-scale depends linearly only on the black hole mass and not on the bolometric luminosity. Moreover, we find that as the energy range increases, the PSD normalization increases and there is a hint that simultaneously the high frequency slope becomes steeper. Finally, the X-ray time-lag spectrum of NGC 7314 shows some very weak signatures of relativistic reflection, and the energy resolved time-lag spectrum, for frequencies around $3\times10^{-4}$ Hz, shows no signatures of X-ray reverberation. We show that the previous claim about ks time-delays in this source, is simply an artefact induced by the minuscule number of points entering during the time-lag estimation in the low frequency part of the time-lag spectrum (i.e. below $10^{-4}$ Hz)., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. The paper is 21 pages long and contains 15 figures and 3 tables

We present X-ray spectral variability of 24 local active galactic nuclei (AGN) from the Palomar sample of nearby galaxies, as observed mainly by Swift. From hardness ratio measurements, we find that 18 AGN with low accretion rates show hardening with increasing count rate, converse to the softer-when-brighter behaviour normally observed in AGN with higher accretion rates. Two AGN show softening with increasing count rate, two show more complex behaviour, and two do not show any simple relationship. Sufficient data were available for the spectra of 13 AGN to be summed in flux-bins. In 9 of these sources, correlated luminosity-dependent changes in the photon index ($\Gamma$) of a power-law component are found to be the main cause of hardness variability. For 6 objects, with a low accretion rate as a fraction of the Eddington rate (\.m$\mathrm{_{Edd}}$), $\Gamma$ is anticorrelated with \.m$\mathrm{_{Edd}}$, i.e. `harder-when-brighter' behaviour is observed. The 3 higher-\.m$\mathrm{_{Edd}}$-rate objects show a positive correlation between $\Gamma$ and \.m$\mathrm{_{Edd}}$. This transition from harder-when-brighter at low \.m$\mathrm{_{Edd}}$s to softer-when-brighter at high \.m$\mathrm{_{Edd}}$s can be explained by a change in the dominant source of seed-photons for X-ray emission from cyclo-synchrotron emission from the Comptonising corona itself to thermal seed-photons from the accretion disc. This transition is also seen in the `hard state' of black hole X-ray binaries (BHXRBs). The results support the idea that LINERs are analogues of BHXRBs in the hard state and that Seyferts are analogues of BHXRBs in either the high-accretion-rate end of the hard state or in the hard-intermediate state., Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

During an intensive Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) UV monitoring campaign of the Seyfert~1 galaxy NGC 5548 performed from 2014 February to July, the normally highly correlated far-UV continuum and broad emission-line variations decorrelated for ~60 to 70 days, starting ~75 days after the first HST/COS observation. Following this anomalous state, the flux and variability of the broad emission lines returned to a more normal state. This transient behavior, characterised by significant deficits in flux and equivalent width of the strong broad UV emission lines, is the first of its kind to be unambiguously identified in an active galactic nucleus reverberation mapping campaign. The largest corresponding emission-line flux deficits occurred for the high-ionization collisionally excited lines, C IV and Si IV(+O IV]), and also He II(+O III]), while the anomaly in Ly-alpha was substantially smaller. This pattern of behavior indicates a depletion in the flux of photons with E_{\rm ph} > 54 eV, relative to those near 13.6 eV. We suggest two plausible mechanisms for the observed behavior: (i) temporary obscuration of the ionizing continuum incident upon BLR clouds by a moving veil of material lying between the inner accretion disk and inner BLR, perhaps resulting from an episodic ejection of material from the disk, or (ii) a temporary change in the intrinsic ionizing continuum spectral energy distribution resulting in a deficit of ionizing photons with energies > 54 eV, possibly due to a transient restructuring of the Comptonizing atmosphere above the disk. Current evidence appears to favor the latter explanation., Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, Friday 25th March 2016. A movie of the anomalous emission-line behavior can be found in the ancilliary documents

Over the past few years, several occasions of large, continuous rotations of the electric vector position angle (EVPA) of linearly polarized optical emission from blazars have been reported. These events are often coincident with high energy gamma-ray flares and they have attracted considerable attention, as they could allow one to probe the magnetic field structure in the gamma-ray emitting region of the jet. The flat-spectrum radio quasar 3C279 is one of the most prominent examples showing this behaviour. Our goal is to study the observed EVPA rotations and to distinguish between a stochastic and a deterministic origin of the polarization variability. We have combined multiple data sets of R-band photometry and optical polarimetry measurements of 3C279, yielding exceptionally well-sampled flux density and polarization curves that cover a period of 2008-2012. Several large EVPA rotations are identified in the data. We introduce a quantitative measure for the EVPA curve smoothness, which is then used to test a set of simple random walk polarization variability models against the data. 3C279 shows different polarization variation characteristics during an optical low-flux state and a flaring state. The polarization variation during the flaring state, especially the smooth approx. 360 degrees rotation of the EVPA in mid-2011, is not consistent with the tested stochastic processes. We conclude that during the two different optical flux states, two different processes govern the polarization variation, possibly a stochastic process during the low-brightness state and a deterministic process during the flaring activity., Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures, 6 tables

We present ground-based optical photometric monitoring data for NGC 5548, part of an extended multi-wavelength reverberation mapping campaign. The light curves have nearly daily cadence from 2014 January to July in nine filters (\emph{BVRI} and \emph{ugriz}). Combined with ultraviolet data from the \emph{Hubble Space Telescope} and \emph{Swift}, we confirm significant time delays between the continuum bands as a function of wavelength, extending the wavelength coverage from 1158\,\AA\ to the $z$ band ($\sim\!9160$\,\AA). We find that the lags at wavelengths longer than the {\it V} band are equal to or greater than the lags of high-ionization-state emission lines (such as He\,{\sc ii}\,$\lambda 1640$ and $\lambda 4686$), suggesting that the continuum-emitting source is of a physical size comparable to the inner broad-line region (BLR). The trend of lag with wavelength is broadly consistent with the prediction for continuum reprocessing by an accretion disk with $\tau \propto \lambda^{4/3}$. However, the lags also imply a disk radius that is 3 times larger than the prediction from standard thin-disk theory, assuming that the bolometric luminosity is 10\% of the Eddington luminosity ($L = 0.1L_{\rm Edd}$). Using optical spectra from the Large Binocular Telescope, we estimate the bias of the interband continuum lags due to BLR emission observed in the filters. We find that the bias for filters with high levels of BLR contamination ($\sim\! 20\%$) can be important for the shortest continuum lags, and likely has a significant impact on the {\it u} and {\it U} bands owing to Balmer continuum emission., Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures, accepted to ApJ. For a brief video describing the main results of this paper, please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaYtcDvIoP0&feature=youtu.be

We present long term monitoring of MCG-6-30-15 in X-rays, optical and near-IR wavelengths, collected over five years of monitoring. We determine the power spectrum density of all the observed bands and show that after taking into account the host contamination similar power is observed in the optical and near-IR bands. There is evidence for a correlation between the light curves of the X-ray photon flux and the optical B-band, but it is not possible to determine a lag with certainty, with the most likely value being around zero days. Strong correlation is seen between the optical and near-IR bands. Cross correlation analysis shows some complex probability distributions and lags that range from 10 to 20 days, with the near-IR following the optical variations. Filtering the light curves in frequency space shows that the strongest correlations are those corresponding to the shortest time-scales. We discuss the nature of the X-ray variability and conclude that this is intrinsic and cannot be accounted for by absorption episodes due to material intervening in the line of sight. It is also found that the lags agree with the relation tau ~ lambda^(4/3), as expected for an optically thick geometrically thin accretion disc, although for a larger disc than that predicted by the estimated black hole mass and accretion rate in MCG-6-30-15. The cross correlation analysis suggests that the torus is located at ~20 light-days from the central source and at most at ~50 light-days from the central region. This implies an AGN bolometric luminosity of ~3x10^(43) ergs/s/cm-2., Comment: 13 pages (double column), 11 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication (MNRAS)

List of contributions from the CTA Consortium presented at the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, 30 July - 6 August 2015, The Hague, The Netherlands., Comment: Index of CTA conference proceedings at the ICRC2015, The Hague (The Netherlands). v1: placeholder with no arXiv links yet, to be replaced once individual contributions have been all submitted; v2: final with arXiv links to all CTA contributions and full author list

We report on the largest Swift AGN monitoring program, concerning UV/optical variability in Seyferts. From 554 observations, over a 750d period, of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 5548, we see (McHardy et al. 2014) a good overall correlation between the X-ray and UV/optical bands,particularly on short timescales (tens of days). The UVOT bands are found to lag behind X-rays with a lag scaling as wavelength to the power 1.23 +/- 0.31, in excellent agreement with that expected (1.33) if UV/optical variability arises from reprocessing of X-rays by the accretion disc. However, the observed lags are ~3 times longer than expected from a standard Shakura-Sunyaev disc, raising real concerns about the detailed validity of this model. The results can be explained with a slightly larger mass and accretion rate, and a hotter disc, or if the disc is clumpy, thereby enhancing the emission from the outer regions., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, to appear in "Swift: 10 years of discovery", Proceedings of Science

We present analysis of the long-term X-ray spectral variability of Seyfert galaxies as observed by Swift, which provides well-sampled observations over a much larger flux range and a much longer timescale than any other X-ray observatory. We examine long-term variability of three AGN: NGC 1365 (see Connolly et al. 2014), Mkn 335 and NGC 5548. At high fluxes, the 0.5-10 keV spectra soften with increasing flux, as seen previously within the 2-10 keV band. However, at very low fluxes the sources also become very soft. We have fitted a number of models to the data and find that both intrinsic luminosity variability and variable absorption are required to explain the observations. In some systems, e.g. NGC 1365, the best explanation is a two-component wind model in which one component represents direct emission absorbed by a disc wind wind, with the absorbing column inversely proportional to the intrinsic luminosity, and the second component represents unabsorbed emission reflected from the wind. In other AGN the situation is more complex., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figues, to appear in "Swift: 10 years of discovery", Proceedings of Science

We describe the first results from a six-month long reverberation-mapping experiment in the ultraviolet based on 170 observations of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. Significant correlated variability is found in the continuum and broad emission lines, with amplitudes ranging from ~30% to a factor of two in the emission lines and a factor of three in the continuum. The variations of all the strong emission lines lag behind those of the continuum, with He II 1640 lagging behind the continuum by ~2.5 days and Lyman alpha 1215, C IV 1550, and Si IV 1400 lagging by ~5-6 days. The relationship between the continuum and emission lines is complex. In particular, during the second half of the campaign, all emission-line lags increased by a factor of 1.3-2 and differences appear in the detailed structure of the continuum and emission-line light curves. Velocity-resolved cross-correlation analysis shows coherent structure in lag versus line-of-sight velocity for the emission lines; the high-velocity wings of C IV respond to continuum variations more rapidly than the line core, probably indicating higher velocity BLR clouds at smaller distances from the central engine. The velocity-dependent response of Lyman alpha, however, is more complex and will require further analysis., Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. 20 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables. See also STORM Paper II "Space telescope and optical reverberation mapping project. II. Reverberation mapping of the accretion disk with SWIFT and HST" by R. Edelson et al