The relationship between X-ray variability and the central black hole mass

Abstract

We assembled a sample of Seyfert 1 galaxies, quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) and low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs) observed by ASCA, the central black hole masses of which have been measured. We found that the X-ray variability (which is quantified by the 'excess variance' σ2rms) is significantly anti-correlated with the central black hole mass, and it is likely that a linear relationship of σ2rms ∝ M-1bh exists. It can be interpreted that the short time-scale X-ray variability is caused by some global coherent variations in the X-ray emission region, which is scaled by the size of the central black hole. Hence the central black hole mass is the driving parameter of the previously established relation between X-ray variability and luminosity. Our findings favour the hypothesis that the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies and QSOs harbour smaller black holes than the broad-line objects, and can also easily explain the observational fact that high-redshift QSOs have greater variability than local AGNs at a given luminosity. Further investigations are needed to confirm our findings, and a large sample X-ray variability investigation can give constraints on the physical mechanisms and evolution of AGNs.