X-Ray Flares in the Long-term Light Curve of Low-luminosity Active Galactic Nucleus M81*

Abstract

Most active galactic nuclei at the center of the nearby galaxies have supermassive black holes accreting at sub-Eddington rates through hot accretion flows or radiatively inefficient accretion flows, which efficiently produce jets. The association of radio and X-ray flares with the knot ejection from M81* inspires us to model its multiwavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) during these flares to constrain the physical parameters of the jet. Moreover, we construct a long-term light curve in X-rays to identify the flares in the available data and constrain the jet parameters during those periods. The jet activity may vary on short as well as long timescales, which may produce flares in different frequency bands. The SEDs from radio to X-ray during the quiescent as well as flaring states are found to be satisfactorily explained by synchrotron emission of relativistic electrons from a single zone. The variation in the values of the jet parameters during the different states is shown and compared with high-synchrotron peaked blazars.