Removal of a 1s electron from atomic neon by highly energetic photons, gives rise mainly to the 1s2s22p6 state of singly ionized neon. This state c decay mostly by ejection of an Auger electron to form various excited terms of Ne+2. This process dominates largely the radiative Kα decay (ωK = 0.018). The main route to Ne+2 is 1s22s22p41D (61%) and there is no Auger decay to the ground final term (Krause et al, 1971). Shake up processes, i.e excitations of outer shells accompagning the 1s–electron ejection, produce mainly 1s2s22p5 np 2S states (n=3,4), 5% relatively to all processes (Krause, 1971). These np states radiationless decay producing numerous Ne+2 states. Shake off processes, i.e. ionizations of outer shells by the photoelectron, are not negligible, nearly 14% relatively to all processes (Krause, 1971) for photons with energy greater than 1 keV. Shake off process leads by radiationless transitions to three or four times ionized neon. The 1s2s2p5 state is strongly favoured by shake off process and decay to the main configurations of Ne+3 1s22sm2pn (Krause, 1971). In an analagous way, the case of oxygen presents the same interesting features but there is actually a lack of experimental and theoretical data (Caldwell and Krause, 1993, Petrini and Araújo, 1993).

Relativistic pair plasmas are implicated in the physics of the central regions of AGNs, and the observed variability of these sources can be related to the dynamics and changes in structure of these plasmas. To this respect a study of the behaviour of waves to which the pair plasma reacts as a fluid is quite relevant. We analyze the linear response to perturbations of a simple thermal mildly relativistic pair plasma system.

We develop a new method called “Inverse Synchrotron Transform” (IST) to study the spectral energy distributions of AGNs. We demonstrate that it is possible to use Bayes Theorem for conditional probabilities to derive a self-consistent solution for the electron energy distribution (EEDs), starting from the observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and the assumption that the only physical process involved is thin synchrotron radiation. We test the IST method and find that it allows to distinguish among different EEDs that produce SEDs which nevertheless seem very similar. We apply the method to multifrequency simultaneous observations of AGNs (paper II, this conference).

The one-sideness observed in several extragalactic jets is usually explained by the Doppler boosting effect in a pair of relativistic beams, moving almost parallel to the line of sight. However jets could be intrinsically asymmetric if magnetically driven from the accretion disk surrounding the central black hole. Wang et al. (1992) have shown that a combination of odd and even magnetic structures could lead to different Poynting fluxes in the two hemispheres of the inner nucleus. However, without any peculiar assumption, it can be shown that intrinsic one-sideness can be simply related to the symmetry properties of the MHD equations.

Constraints on possible variation rate of the fine-structure constant, , and the electron-proton mass ratio , over cosmological time scales are obtained from analyses of quasar spectroscopic data.

The Hamburg Sternwarte is conducting a large area identification program of ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) sources on objective prism plates taken with the Schmidt telescopes on Calar Alto and La Silla (Bade et al., 1992, MPE-Report 235, 377). With follow-up observations redshifts and a more detailed classification of the emission line spectrum of 284 AGN were derived until August 1992.

Like radio and optical observations of AGN/Galaxy pairs (e.g. Carilli, C & van Gorkom, J. 1992, ApJ, 399, 373), X-ray observations of the pairs can reveal absorption at high energy band, and also, possible galactic gaseous X-ray emissions that are very useful in constructing halo models. ROSAT/PSPC X-ray spectra of 4 AGNs in the well-known pairs 3C232/NGC 3067, 3C275.1/NGC 4651, 3C309.1/NGC 5832 and Mrk474/NGC 5682 are reported here. Especially, we have detected an extragalactic HI of NGC 5862 in the Mrk474 spectrum.

Deep (T∼35 ksec) pointed ROSAT observations of a 2.2° × 2.2° optical quasar survey field (149 quasars; mlim = 20.5; Crampton et al., 1989) have yielded a detection rate (3 σ) of ∼ 60 % (86 quasars; limiting sensitivity ∼ 5 · 10−15 erg cm−2 s−1 keV−1 at 1 keV). See Fig. 1 for the distribution of the ROSAT PSPC source count rates and Fig. 2a, b for the fraction of quasars detected in X-rays as a function of redshift and optical magnitude. 46 quasars were bright enough to perform spectral power law fits. The mean energy power law index drops from ∼ 1.4 at z = 0 to ∼ 0.9 at z > 2 (Fig. 4; only the 20 brightest sources are plotted). This is interpreted as being due to a break in the spectrum between a soft, thermal accretion disk and a hard power law component, occuring at a source frame energy around 1 keV (Fig. 5). Mean accretion disk model parameters are derived (M = 5.108 M⊙, Ṁ = 0.65 MEdd., αvisc. = 0.5) using an optically thin α-accretion disk model (Dörrer et al., 1992 and references therein). Model predictions for the decline of the X-ray spectral index with redshift are plotted in Fig. 4. The αox distribution (Fig. 3; dotted line: X-ray upper limits) and the optical number-redshift relation (Fig. 6; dotted line: X-ray number-redshift relation) is modeled using the accretion disk parameters as determined from the X-ray spectral data and assuming a constant comoving volume density (H0 = 100 km/s Mpc, q0 = 0.5) and statistical orientation of the inclination angles of the model source population.

X–ray observations of AGN with Einstein, EXOSAT and Ginga have shown, that the spectra of quasars in the energy range 2 to 10 keV can be approximately described by a single power law model with a photon index of 1.7 to 2.0. They also suggested that a soft X-ray excess component (below ≈ 1 keV) is a common feature in many quasars. In order to investigate whether a soft excess is characteristic for a certain class of objects we analysed the data of the pointed ROSAT PSPC observations of the six radio-loud quasars PG0007+106, PKS0135-247, QSO0537-286, QSO0923+392, PG1225+317, 3C273 and the radio-quiet quasar PG0804+761. In a first step the observed spectra were fitted with an absorbed single power law model. The hydrogen column density was fixed to its galactic value and the normalisation at 1 keV and the spectral index α were the free fit parameters. In order to decide whether a soft component is present in a source, the resulting power law index was compared with the hard X-ray power law index (2–10 keV) determined in the past with other instruments. A steep ROSAT PSPC spectrum indicates the presence of an additional soft X–ray component. In four cases (PKS0135-247, PG0804+761, QSO0923+392, 3C273) we find that the spectra in the PSPC band are considerably steeper than the spectra above 2 keV and therefore suggest the presence of a soft excess. In order to quantify the contribution of the soft excess these spectra were successively fitted with a model containing a hard power law component and an additional soft component described either by a power law, thermal bremsstrahlung or black body model. For the other three members of our sample (0007+106, 0537-286, 1225+317) the fitted power law index is not enhanced. This means that no soft component has been detected, but not necessarily that it does not exist. There are two effects which render more difficult the detection of a soft component in ROSAT spectra, the absorption of photons by interstellar material and the shift of the spectra towards lower energies due to the redshift. Both processes have first an effect on the soft part of the observed spectrum and it is therefore evident, that this leads to a decrease of the sensitivity for soft X–rays of the emitted spectrum. For the three quasars in our sample, where no soft excess has been detected, either the column density (0007+106) or the redshift (0537-286, 1225+317) is especially large and therefore an eventually present soft component could have remained undetected. In these cases we calculated upper limits for the strength of such a soft component (P. Bühler et al., to be published in A&A.)

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) can be studied in the ROSAT energy band also when serendipitously observed during long pointed observation of unrelated targets. From the available ROSAT database three Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey (EMSS) AGNs, detected with more than 500 counts, have been studied. One AGN (MS 1803.6+6738 = Kaz 102) was observed twice and in one field the target is the BL Lac 0716+714.

– Spectral studies reveal that all three AGNs are well described by a single power law. Values of relevance are summarized in the table where they are compared to previous values from Einstein and the ROSAT survey (Walter R. & Fink H.H., 1993, A&A, 274, 105). All four sources have a NH value well below the estimated value given by Stark et al. (1992, ApJS, 79, 77) and Elvis et al. (1989, ApJ, 97, 777). This probably is an indication that a soft excess is present.

– Variability studies show flux variations for the BL Lac on time scales of days, while the photon index appears rather constant. The high count rate for this object allows to attribute a probability of variability greater than 99% (running a K-S test against constancy). In the case of Kaz 102, the comparison of previous measurements with the present one does not show evidence of long term (years) variability.

The Starburst model for Radio Quiet Active Galactic Nuclei proved able to explain the origin of the broad line region, the variability characteristics of line and continuum in Seyfert galaxies, X-ray spectra, the luminosity function of QSOs and etc. But can we understand the rapid X-ray variability observed in several AGN with supernovae?

In the context of an identification program of sources from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS) on Schmidt objective prism plates (Bade et al. 1992a, b) we discovered two galaxy pairs, which contain a narrow-line Seyfert 1 component with an X-ray luminosity of Lx ∼ 1044 erg s−1 and an HII–region galaxy. Apparently they are interacting. Their redshifts are 0.1 < z < 0.3 and their brightnesses 17.5 < B < 19.5. A third one was found among EINSTEIN sources. Typical separations between the components are 10″. Near the pairs other galaxies were found, and although their physical association is not confirmed spectroscopically it is quite probable that they form a small cluster of galaxies. ROSAT HRI observations indicate that the X-ray emission is not extended and originate from the AGN alone. It is remarkable that the AGN in all physical pairs identified so far have rather narrow permitted emission lines with linewidths ≤ 1500 km s−1.

From a list of known quasars compiled from various catalogues we selected all sources detected by the PSPC (0.1 – 2.4 keV) aboard ROSAT with more than 80 counts during the all sky survey. A sample of 102 sources resulted. At higher redshifts most of the selected sources are radio-loud. At a redshift smaller than 0.50 we found 54 radio-quiet quasars and 30 radio-loud sources. For this reduced sample the mean spectral index of the radio-quiet sources (< Γ > = 2.53) and that of the radio-loud ones (< Γ > = 2.26) are clearly different with a significance of 3.3 σ.

About 2/3 of the bright quasars observed with Einstein also belong to our sample. The spectra observed with ROSAT are sytematically steeper than the ones observed with Einstein yielding a < ΓROSAT – ΓEinstein > of 0.66 ± 0.18 for radio quiet and of 0.68 ± 0.19 for radio-loud sources, respectively.

For radio loud quasars, the mean spectral slope decreases from 2.3 to 1.5 when the redshift increases beyond 0.5 (figure 1). The fact that high redshift sources show a photon index of about 1.5, which is similar to the mean index observed with Einstein for radio-loud sources, suggests that this decrease towards higher redshifts can be interpreted by the shift of the soft X-ray excess outside of the ROSAT spectral band when the redshift increases. The solid lines in figure 1 represent theoretical pathes of the photon index as a function of the redshift as derived from simulations assuming a power law plus black body model spectrum for the quasars X-ray emission. In curve No 1 the powerlaw index is fixed to 1.4. To be compatible with the observation the temperature of the blackbody component must range between 50 and 70 eV. Curve No 2 asssumes the same model with a powerlaw index fixed to 1.8 to account for radio quiet sources.

We found that ROSAT spectra of a sample of 89 AGN are generally steeper than 0.7. The excess above a hard X-ray power law spectrum in this energy range which has been found already with Einstein and EXOSAT for some AGN is now seen very clearly in most sources. Our α-disk models (Dörrer et al., 1992 and references therein) which include Comptonization and relativistic corrections are in agreement with the measured soft excesses when the (ṀEdd., α) parameter space is restricted to α > 0.4 and ṀEdd. ε [0.4, 0.8] (ṀEdd.: Eddington accretion rate).

From a ROSAT HRI observation of Cygnus A (42 ksec), we detect x-ray emission from the galaxy identified with the radio source. This was accomplished by subtracting a modified King model: (Surface brightness ∝ to [1+(r/a)2](0.5–3β)) in order to study residual features once the main body of emission from diffuse gas had been deleted. The central source was present for all acceptable values of the core radius, a, and exponent, β. Details of the image processing, an evaluation of emission from the radio hotspots, and a study of the effect of the radio lobes on the gas distribution will be presented elsewhere.

We have compiled a sample of 23 X-ray and radio selected BL Lacertae objects which have been observed with the Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) on board of the ROSAT Satellite. The sample consists of three parts:

In Table I results from 4 objects observed for their known rapid X-ray variability are presented. 5 objects are the BL Lac subset of a complete sample of flat spectrum radio sources with 5 GHz flux densities > 1 Jy. Detailed results from this sample will be published in Brunner et al. 1993. The data of the 14 remainig objects were collected from the ROSAT data archive to supplement the sample. The whole sample contains 7 X-ray selected objects (XBLs,αOX < 1.2) and 16 radio selected objects (RBLs).

The X-ray spectra of the sources are well described by single power laws with galactic absorption. The X-ray energy indices αX are widely dispersed around a mean of 1.34. Significant X-ray flux variability and correlated spectral variability was detected on timescales down to hours. The object H 1218+304 was found to be rapidly variable within each of three observations. Its spectral hardness is correlated with the flux level (see Table I).

We calculated the intrinsic distributions of the spectral indices αX for the XBL and RBL samples and of the differences between ROSAT and EXOSAT ME spectral indices αPSPC – αME (only XBL sample) using a maximum likelihood fit. There is no significant difference in the mean spectral indices between the X-ray and radio selected subsamples. The mean values < αX > are 1.34 for XBLs and 1.33 for RBLs. The spectra of the X-ray selected objects slightly steepen at higher X-ray energies (< αPSPC – αME > = −0.11). This supports the view that the X-ray emission of XBLs is supplied by synchrotron radiation. The steepening of the X-ray spectrum is then due to a cutoff in the energy distribution of the electrons.

Recent ROSAT X-ray observations of AGN have yielded important new information about the analytic structure of the AGN X-ray luminosity function and its evolution out to z = 3. Using the luminosity evolution obtained within the cosmological context of Ω=0, we find[ that AGN could readily make up the CXB (cosmic X-ray background). However, in this case we find that accounting for the CXB with accretion-powered AGN emission is incompatible with the observed mass function for present-epoch black hole galactic nuclei (both active and dormant). On the other hand, we find that the luminosity evolution obtained with ROSAT for such AGN within the cosmological context of Ω=1 is indeed compatible with the present-epoch black hole galactic nuclei mass function. This apparently acceptable solution, though, definitely falls short of accounting for all the CXB, even when considering unified models for AGN. This difficulty can be resolved by noting that the underlying supermassive black holes which already exist at the onset of the canonical AGN phenomenon of supply-limited accretion must have undergone a previous growth phase where the accretion would be expected to be Eddington-limited. In this likely scenario (i.e., for Ω=1) the residual CXB, that over and above the foreground of canonical AGN, can be naturally explained by the characteristic X-ray emission from highly compact PAG (precursor active galaxy) sources associated with these numerous black holes, at redshifts just beyond the earliest AGN.

We show that the recent observations of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 in hard X-rays and soft γ-rays by the OSSE and SIGMA detectors onboard CGRO and GRANAT, respectively, are well explained by a nonthermal model with acceleration of relativistic electrons at an efficiency of ≲50% and with the remaining power dissipated thermally in the source (the standard nonthermal e± pair model assumed 100% efficiency). Such an acceleration efficiency is generally expected on physical grounds. The resulting model unifies previously proposed purely thermal and purely nonthermal models. The pure nonthermal model for NGC 4151 appears to be ruled out. The pure thermal model gives a worse fit to the data than our hybrid nonthermal/thermal model. Our results are presented in Zdziarski, Lightman, & Maciołek-Niedźwiecki (1993).

The presence of iron lines and high energy excesses in the X-ray spectra of Seyfert galaxies has been firmly established by Ginga (e.g. Nandra & Pounds 1993 and references therein). These features are generally interpreted as signatures of the reprocessing of the primary X-rays by matter in the neighbourhood of the central black hole, probably distributed in an accretion disc (Lightman & White 1988, George & Fabian 1991, Matt, Perola & Piro 1991).

It will be shown that the jets observed in AGN's are the result of the high energy gamma rays recently observed by the EGRET and Whipple collaborations interacting with a medium of density typical of that expected in galaxies. All of the observed properties of the jets follow from this interaction.