Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userProbing the accretion disk and central engine structure of NGC4258 with Suzaku and XMM-Newton observations
120
0
0.0
(
0
)
Added by
Christopher S. Reynolds
Publication date
2008
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Authors
Christopher S. Reynolds
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
[abridged] We present an X-ray study of the low-luminosity active galactic nucleus (AGN) in NGC4258 using data from Suzaku, XMM-Newton, and the Swift/BAT survey. We find that signatures of X-ray reprocessing by cold gas are very weak in the spectrum of this Seyfert-2 galaxy; a weak, narrow fluorescent-Kalpha emission line of cold iron is robustly detected in both the Suzaku and XMM-Newton spectra but at a level much below that of most other Seyfert-2 galaxies. We conclude that the circumnuclear environment of this AGN is very clean and lacks the Compton-thick obscuring torus of unified Seyfert schemes. From the narrowness of the iron line, together with evidence for line flux variability between the Suzaku and XMM-Newton observations, we constrain the line emitting region to be between $3times 10^3r_g$ and $4times 10^4r_g$ from the black hole. We show that the observed properties of the iron line can be explained if the line originates from the surface layers of a warped accretion disk. In particular, we present explicit calculations of the expected iron line from a disk warped by Lens-Thirring precession from a misaligned central black hole. Finally, the Suzaku data reveal clear evidence for large amplitude 2-10keV variability on timescales of 50ksec as well as smaller amplitude flares on timescales as short as 5-10ksec. If associated with accretion disk processes, such rapid variability requires an origin in the innermost regions of the disk ($rapprox 10r_g$ or less).
rate research
Read More
We systematically analyzed the high-quality Suzaku data of 88 Seyfert galaxies. We obtained a clear relation between the absorption column density and the equivalent width of the 6.4 keV line above 10$^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$, suggesting a wide-ranging column density of $10^{23-24.5}$ cm$^{-2}$ with a similar solid and a Fe abundance of 0.7--1.3 solar for Seyfert 2 galaxies. The EW of the 6.4 keV line for Seyfert 1 galaxies are typically 40--120 eV, suggesting the existence of Compton-thick matter like the torus with a column density of $>10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$ and a solid angle of $(0.15-0.4)*4pi$, and no difference of neutral matter is visible between Seyfert 1 and 2 galaxies. An absorber with a lower column density of $10^{21-23}$ cm$^{-2}$ for Compton-thin Seyfert 2 galaxies is suggested to be not a torus but an interstellar medium. These constraints can be understood by the fact that the 6.4 keV line intensity ratio against the 10--50 keV flux is almost identical within a range of 2--3 in many Seyfert galaxies. Interestingly, objects exist with a low EW, 10--30 eV, of the 6.4 keV line, suggesting that those torus subtends only a small solid angle of $<0.2*4pi$. Ionized Fe-K$alpha$ emission or absorption lines are detected from several percents of AGNs. Considering the ionization state and equivalent width, emitters and absorbers of ionized Fe-K lines can be explained by the same origin, and highly ionized matter is located at the broad line region. The rapid increase in EW of the ionized Fe-K emission lines at $N_{H}>10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$ is found, like that of the cold material. It is found that these features seem to change for brighter objects with more than several $10^{44}$ erg/s such that the Fe-K line features become weak. We discuss this feature, together with the torus structure.
Suzaku observed a central region and five offset regions within 0.2 r180 in the Fornax cluster, a nearby poor cluster, and XMM-Newton mapped the cluster with 15 pointings out to 0.3 r180. The distributions of O, Mg, Si, S, and Fe in the intracluster medium (ICM) were studied with Suzaku, and those of Fe and temperature were studied with XMM. The temperature of the ICM gradually decreases with radius from 1.3 keV at 0.04 r180 to 1 keV at 0.2-0.3 r180. If the new solar abundances of Lodders et al. (2003) and a single-temperature plasma model are adopted, O, Mg, Si, S, and Fe show similar abundances: 0.4-0.6 solar within 0.02-0.2 r180. This Fe abundance is similar to those at 0.1-0.2 r180 in rich clusters and other groups of galaxies. At 0.2-0.3 r180, the Fe abundance becomes 0.2-0.3 solar. A two-temperature plasma model yields ICM abundances that are higher by a factor of 1.2-1.5, but gives similar abundance ratios among O, Mg, Si, S, and Fe. The northern region has a lower ICM temperature and higher brightness and Fe abundance, whereas the southern region has a higher ICM temperature and lower brightness and Fe abundance. These results indicate that the cD galaxy may have traveled from the north because of recent dynamical evolution. The cumulative oxygen- and iron-mass-to-light ratios within 0.3 r180 are more than an order of magnitude lower than those of rich clusters and some relaxed groups of galaxies. Past dynamical evolution might have hindered the strong concentration of hot gas in the Fornax clusters central region. Scatter in the IMLR and similarity in the element abundances in the ICM of groups and clusters of galaxies indicate early metal synthesis.
The archival XMM-Newton data of the central region of M31 were analyzed for diffuse X-ray emission. Point sources with the 0.5--10 keV luminosity exceeding $sim 4 times 10^{35}$ erg s$^{-1}$ were detected. Their summed spectra are well reproduced by a combination of a disk black-body component and a black-body component, implying that the emission mainly comes from an assembly of luminous low-mass X-ray binaries. After excluding these point sources, spectra were accumulated over a circular region of $6arcmin$ (1.2 kpc) centered on the nucleus. In the energy range above 2 keV, these residual spectra are understood mainly as contributions of unresolved faint sources and spill-over of photons from the excluded point sources. There is in addition a hint of a $sim 6.6$ keV line emission, which can be produced by a hot (temperature several keV) thin-thermal plasma. Below 2 keV, the spectra involve three additional softer components expressed by thin-thermal plasma emission models, of which the temperatures are $sim 0.6$, $sim 0.3$, and $sim 0.1$ keV. Their 0.5--10 keV luminosities within 6$arcmin$ are measured to be $sim 1.2 times 10^{38}$ erg s$^{-1}$, $sim 1.6 times 10^{38}$ erg s$^{-1}$, and $sim 4 times 10^{37}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in the order of decreasing temperature. The archival Chandra data of the central region of M31 yielded consistent results. By incorporating different annular regions, all the three softer thermal components were confirmed to be significantly extended. These results are compared with reports from previous studies. A discussion is presented on the origin of each thermal emission component.
We report multifrequency phase-referenced observations of the nearby radio galaxy NGC 4261, which has prominent two-sided jets, using the Very Long Baseline Array at 1.4-43 GHz. We measured radio core positions showing observing frequency dependences (known as core shift) in both approaching jets and counter jets. The limit of the core position as the frequency approaches infinity, which suggests a jet base, is separated by 82$pm$16 ${mu}$as upstream in projection, corresponding to (310$pm$60)Rs (Rs: Schwarzschild radius) as a deprojected distance, from the 43 GHz core in the approaching jet. In addition, the innermost component at the counter jet side appeared to approach the same position at infinity of the frequency, indicating that cores on both sides are approaching the same position, suggesting a spatial coincidence with the central engine. Applying a phase referencing technique, we also obtained spectral index maps, which indicate that emission from the counter jet is affected by free-free absorption (FFA). The result of the core shift profile on the counter jet also requires FFA because the core positions at 5-15GHz cannot be explained by a simple core shift model based on synchrotron self-absorption (SSA). Our result is apparently consistent with the SSA core shift with an additional disk-like absorber over the counterjet side. Core shift and opacity profiles at the counter jet side suggest a two-component accretion: a radiatively inefficient accretion flow at the inner region and a truncated thin disk in the outer region. We proposed a possible solution about density and temperature profiles in the outer disk on the basis of the radio observation.
Supergiant X-ray binaries usually comprise a neutron star accreting from the wind of a OB supergiant companion. They are classified as classical systems and the supergiant fast X-ray transients (SFXTs). The different behavior of these sub-classes of sources in X-rays, with SFXTs displaying much more pronounced variability, is usually (at least) partly ascribed to different physical properties of the massive star clumpy stellar wind. In case of SFXTs, a systematic investigation of the effects of clumps on flares/outbursts of these sources has been reported by Bozzo et al. (2017) exploiting the capabilities of the instruments on-board XMM-Newton to perform a hardness-resolved spectral analysis on timescales as short as a few hundreds of seconds. In this paper, we use six XMM-Newton observations of IGR J18027-2016 to extend the above study to a classical supergiant X-ray binary and compare the findings with those derived in the case of SFXTs. As these observations of IGR J18027-2016 span different orbital phases, we also study its X-ray spectral variability on longer timescales and compare our results with previous publications. Although obtaining measurements of the clump physical properties from X-ray observations of accreting supergiant X-ray binaries was already proven to be challenging, our study shows that similar imprints of clumps are found in the X-ray observations of the supergiant fast X-ray transients and at least one classical system, i.e. IGR J18027-2016. This provides interesting perspectives to further extend this study to many XMM-Newton observations already performed in the direction of other classical supergiant X-ray binaries.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
