Two-temperature coronae in active galactic nuclei

We show that coronal magnetic dissipation in thin active sheets that sandwich standard thin accretion disks in active galactic nuclei may account for canonical electron temperatures of a few ×10K if protons acquire most of the dissipated energy. Coulomb collisions transfer energy from the ions to the electrons, which subsequently cool rapidly by inverse-Compton scattering. In equilibrium, the proton energy density likely exceeds that of the magnetic field and both well exceed the electron and photon energy densities. The Coulomb energy transfer from protons to electrons is slow enough to maintain a high proton temperature, but fast enough to explain observed rapid X-ray variabilities in Seyferts. The ∼ 10K electron temperature is insensitive to the proton temperature when the latter is ≥ 10K.