SUMMARY OF PROPOSAL 72111

DR. CHRISTOPHER STEPHEN REYNOLDS
CHRIS@ROCINANTE.COLORADO.EDU

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
CAMPUS BOX 440
BOULDER
COLORADO USA 80303
Tel: +1-303-492-4610 Fax: +1-303-492-5235
Medium: CD ROM
Subject: AGN

ASCA OBSERVATIONS OF NGC4258: TESTING THE STRONG ADAF PRINCIPLE


ABSTRACT

We propose a 200ks ASCA observation of the low-luminosity AGN NGC4258 which we plan to make simultaneous with RXTE observations. This object has become the test-bed of the so-called `Strong ADAF Principle' which states that an accretion disk will always be an Advection Dominated Accretion Flow (ADAF) if the mass accretion rate is below a critical value. Our joint ASCA/RXTE data will allow us to search for a broad iron line in the X-ray spectrum of NGC4258. The detection of any such line will point to the presence of a cold, radiatively efficient accretion disk rather than a hot advective flow and provide a firm counter-example to the Strong ADAF Principle. This is of fundamental importance to our understanding of accretion disk physics.

CO-INVESTIGATORS
CO-I NAME INSTITUTE COUNTRY
MICHAEL NOWAKJILA, BOULDERUSA
JOERN WILMSIAA, TUEBINGENGERMANY
PHILIP MALONEYCASA, BOULDERUSA
MITCHELL BEGELMANJILA, BOULDERUSA

TARGETS

TARGET NAMEPRIRADECTIMETCOFFGISSIS CNTOBS
1)NGC4258
B
184.7417 47.3039
200 ks
N
N
P
0.10000
1