Abstract for Proposal 097164

Does an accretion disk appear in the newly re-ignited AGN MRK 590?

After a decade of quiescence, and years of intermittent flaring, the changing-look AGN Mrk 590 has re-ignited. It is in a prolonged bright state, displaying typical UV-optical AGN emission features (broad lines and blue continuum emission). As the previous activity is well-documented, the current bright state offers an excellent opportunity to determine the underlying physical changes. In particular, at lower fluxes, Mrk 590 displays emission consistent with two distinct reprocessing regions that cover the entire accretion flow. The disk-blackbody emission predicted by standard accretion models is notably absent, as is the expected broad reflection signature. Here, we propose a joint NuSTAR+XMM-Newton observation in the new bright state to test for resurgent disk emission.



Details on Observing Strategy and Trigger Criteria
Trigger criteria is that flux measured by Swift XRT (monitoring every 4 days), exceeds a specific threshold. Las Cumbres Observatory will also monitor the source every 2 days for alerting to any abrupt variability.