Ultraviolet and X-ray variability of active galactic nuclei with $\textit{Swift}$

We analyse a sample of 21 active galactic nuclei using data from the $\textit{Swift}$ satellite to study the variability properties of the population in the X-ray, UV and optical band. We find that the variable part of the UV–optical emission has a spectrum consistent with a power law, with an average index of −2.21 ± 0.13, as would be expected from central illumination of a thin disc (index of −7/3). We also calculate the slope of a power law from UV to X-ray variable emission, α$_{OX, Var}$; the average for this sample is α$_{OX, Var}$ = −1.06 ± 0.04. The anticorrelation of αOX with the UV luminosity, $\textit{L}$$_{UV}$, previously found in the average emission is also present in the variable part: α$_{OX, Var}$ = ( − 0.177 ± 0.083)log ( $\textit{L}$$_{ν, Var}$(2500 Å)) + (3.88 ± 2.33). Correlated variability between the emission in X-rays and UV is detected significantly for 9 of the 21 sources. All these cases are consistent with the UV lagging the X-rays, as would be seen if the correlated UV variations were produced by the reprocessing of X-ray emission. The observed UV lags are tentatively longer than expected for a standard thin disc.ACF, AML and DJKB acknowledge support from the ERC Advanced Grant FEEDBACK 340442. WNA acknowledges support from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2013-2017) under grant agreement n.312789, StrongGravity. DB acknowledges an STFC studentship. This work made use of data supplied by the UK Swift Science Data Centre at the University of Leicester.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Oxford University Press via https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw248