Universality of coronal properties in accreting black holes across mass and accretion rate

Abstract

Aims. Through their radio loudness, lack of thermal UV emission from the accretion disk, and power-law dominated spectra, low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs) display similarity with the hard state of stellar-mass black hole X-ray binaries (BHBs). In this work we perform a systematic hard X-ray spectral study of a carefully selected sample of unobscured LLAGNs using archival NuSTAR data to understand the central engine properties in the lower accretion regime. Methods. We analyzed the NuSTAR spectra of a sample of 16 LLAGNs. We modeled the continuum emission with detailed Comptonization models. Results. We find a strong anti-correlation between the optical depth and the electron temperature of the corona, previously also observed in the brighter Seyferts. This anti-correlation is present irrespective of the shape of the corona, and the slope of this anti-correlation in the log space for LLAGNs (0.68–1.06) closely matches that of the higher accretion rate Seyferts (0.55–1.11) and hard state of BHBs (∼0.87). This anti-correlation may indicate a departure from a fixed disk-corona configuration in radiative balance. Conclusions. Our result, therefore, demonstrates a possible universality in Comptonization processes of black hole X-ray sources across multiple orders of magnitude in mass and accretion rate.