Disk Structure May Determine AGN Variability and Explain the Accretion Disk Size Problem: No Broad Line Region Required
3D simulations of AGN disks show that disk thickness dictates variability patterns. The thin top disk behaves like traditional X-ray driven models, while the thick bottom shows long lags inconsistent with standard reverberation mapping. This suggests intrinsic variability from turbulence and convection drives these effects, offering a new way to estimate disk thickness.