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Dynamical and Microphysical Constraints on Accreting Magnetospheric Clouds in Active Galactic Nuclei

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Zdenka Kuncic*
Affiliation:
ANU Astrophysical Theory Centre, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
*
This work was undertaken and completed at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK.

Abstract

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The range of microphysical and dynamical timescales at the centres of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is sufficiently wide to permit multiphase structure. In particular, very dense, cool clouds can coexist with a hot, magnetically-dominated plasma. The strong dynamical forces in this central magnetosphere can give rise to clouds so small that microphysical processes determine whether they can survive for long enough to produce potentially observable spectral signatures due to thermal reprocessing. Specific physical constraints on the scale sizes of such reprocessing clouds are examined. It is found that there exists a parameter subspace in the extreme high density regime for which gas can sustain cool temperatures whilst maintaining pressure equilibrium with the ambient magnetosphere.

Type
Part 3. Fundamental Physical Processes
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1997

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