Science with a Small Two-Band UV-Photometry Mission III: Active Galactic Nuclei and Nuclear Transients

Abstract

In this review, the third one in the series focused on a small two-band UV-photometry mission, we assess possibilities for a small UV two-band photometry mission in studying accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs; mass range

∼

10

6

$\sim 10^{6}$ –

10

10

M ⊙

$10^{10}\,M_{\odot }$ ). We focus on the following observational concepts: (i) dedicated monitoring of selected type-I Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in order to measure the time delay between the far-UV, the near-UV, and other wavebands (X-ray and optical), (ii) nuclear transients including (partial) tidal disruption events and repetitive nuclear transients, and (iii) the study of peculiar sources, such as changing-look AGN, hollows and gaps in accretion disks, low-luminosity AGN, and candidates for Intermediate-Mass Black Holes (IMBHs; mass range

∼

10

2

$\sim 10^{2}$ –

10

5

M ⊙

$10^{5}\,M_{\odot }$ ) in galactic nuclei. The importance of a small UV mission for the observing program (i) is to provide intense, high-cadence monitoring of selected sources, which will be beneficial for, e.g. reverberation-mapping of accretion disks and subsequently confronting accretion-disk models with observations. For program (ii), a relatively small UV space telescope is versatile enough to start monitoring a transient event within ≲ 20 minutes after receiving the trigger; such a moderately fast repointing capability will be highly beneficial. Peculiar sources within the program (iii) will be of interest to a wider community and will create an environment for competitive observing proposals. For tidal disruption events (TDEs), high-cadence UV monitoring is crucial for distinguishing among different scenarios for the origin of the UV emission. The small two-band UV space telescope will also provide information about the near- and far-UV continuum variability for rare transients, such as repetitive partial TDEs and jetted TDEs. We also discuss the possibilities to study and analyze sources with non-standard accretion flows, such as AGN with gappy disks, low-luminosity active galactic nuclei with intermittent accretion, and SMBH binaries potentially involving intermediate-mass black holes.