X-ray transient AGN and galaxies

Abstract

X-ray transience is the most extreme form of variability observed in AGN or normal in-active galaxies. While factors of 2-3 on timescales of days to years are quite commen among AGN, X-ray transients appear only once and vanish from the X-ray sky years later. The ROSAT All-Sky Survey was the tool to discover these sources. X-ray transience in AGN or galaxies can be caused by dramatic changes in the accretion rate of the central black hole or by changes of the properties of the accretion disk.

3 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the proceedings of the `Lighthouses of the Universe' conference helt in Garching, Germany, August 2001