A Solar Like Magnetic Reconnection Event in the Corona of a Supermassive Black Hole

The X-ray source around supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN) has been dubbed the corona by analogy to the solar (and stellar) corona. Both stellar and AGN coronae are orders of magnitude hotter than their counterpart optical source; the stellar photosphere and accretion disk respectively. Both coronae vary on short time scales down to seconds. The coronal activity in the Sun is well imaged and its activity has been shown to be driven by magnetic energy converted into heat through the process of magnetic reconnection. While it has been theorized that AGN corona are also magnetically driven, the driving mechanism of AGN coronal activity has not been directly observed. A smoking gun of magnetic reconnection is when a coronal flare’s temporal evolution in hard and soft X-rays follows the Neupert Effect. These flares result in both a solar coronal mass ejection, and energetic particles streaming down along magnetic field lines to the photosphere. Here, we report the detection of the Neupert Effect in an AGN corona, providing the first direct evidence for magnetic reconnection in AGN. Our measurements indicate a magnetic field loop height of up to 30 gravitational radii, and a distance of about 400 gravitational radii between the corona and the UV emitting accretion disk. The present findings thus enable the application of solar coronal physics to the less accessible AGN corona.