Discovery of hard X-ray delays in the X-ray emission of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk~110: possible evidence for Comptonization

We report the discovery of hard X-ray delays in the X-ray emission of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 110, based on a long XMM-Newton observation. Cross correlation between the X-ray light curves of different energy bands reveals an energy dependent delay ranging from a few minutes to an hour. We find that the energy spectrum can be modeled by Comptonization of disk blackbody photons. The energy dependent delay can be modeled as due to the effect of Comptonization in a hot plasma confined within 10 Schwarzschild radius of the black hole. We discuss our results in the context of inverse Comptonization of the soft photons by highly energetic plasma.