A Rapid X‐Ray Flare in the Radio‐loud Narrow‐Line Quasar PKS 0558−504

Abstract

We report the detection of a very short timescale flare in the radio-loud narrow-line quasar PKS 0558-504 that was observed using ASCA. The X-ray count rates increased and decreased by a factor of 2 in 33 minutes and possibly by 40% in as short a time period as 2 minutes during this flare, confirming with imaging detectors that such a flare event does occur in this object. The implied largest rate of change in luminosity in 0.8-10 keV alone, dL/dt ≃ (1.8 ± 0.4) × 10 42 ergs s -2 , is several times higher than the limit set for the isotropic emitting plasma around a Kerr black hole. Emission from either a relativistic boosting jet or a magnetic heated corona may explain such high radiative efficiency. A magnetic field with a strength of at least a few times 10 4 G is required in the latter case. The spectrum during this flare is significantly harder than an average spectrum. Three radio-loud narrow-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs) possess considerably smaller black holes than the radio-loud AGNs in bright-quasar survey, indicating that they are still in a rapid-growth phase of the black hole by accretion.