First Detection of Near-Infrared Intraday Variations in the Seyfert 1 Nucleus NGC 4395

Abstract

We carried out a one-night optical V and near-infrared JHK monitoring observation of the least luminous Seyfert 1 galaxy, NGC 4395, on 2004 May 1, and detected for the first time the intraday flux variations in the J and H bands, while such variation was not clearly seen for the K band. The detected J and H variations are synchronized with the flux variation in the V band, which indicates that the intraday-variable component of near-infrared continuum emission of the NGC 4395 nucleus is an extension of power-law continuum emission to the near-infrared and originates in an outer region of the central accretion disk. On the other hand, from our regular program of long-term optical BVI and near-infrared JHK monitoring observation of NGC 4395 from 2004 February 12 until 2005 January 22, we found large flux variations in all the bands on timescales of days to months. The optical BVI variations are almost synchronized with each other but not completely with the near-infrared JHK variations. The color temperature of the near-infrared variable component is estimated to be T = 1320-1710 K, in agreement with thermal emission from hot dust tori in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We therefore conclude that the near-infrared variation consists of two components having different timescales, so that a small K-flux variation on a timescale of a few hours would possibly be veiled by large variation of thermal dust emission on a timescale of days.