Feeding and feedback in the powerful radio galaxy 3C 120


Abstract in English

We present the spectral analysis of a 200~ks observation of the broad-line radio galaxy 3C~120 performed with the high energy transmission grating (HETG) spectrometer on board the emph{Chandra} X-ray Observatory. We find (i) a neutral absorption component intrinsic to the source with column density of $text{log}N_H = 20.67pm0.05$~cm$^{-2}$, (ii) no evidence for a warm absorber with an upper limit on the column density of just $text{log}N_H < 19.7$~cm$^{-2}$ assuming the typical ionization parameter log$xi$$simeq$2.5~erg~s$^{-1}$~cm, the warm absorber may instead be replaced by (iii) a hot emitting gas with temperature $kT simeq 0.7$~keV observed as soft X-ray emission from ionized Fe L-shell lines which may originate from a kpc scale shocked bubble inflated by the AGN wind or jet with a shock velocity of about 1,000~km~s$^{-1}$ determined by the emission line width, (iv) a neutral Fe K$alpha$ line and accompanying emission lines indicative of a Compton-thick cold reflector with low reflection fraction $Rsimeq0.2$, suggesting a large opening angle of the torus, (v) a highly ionized Fe~XXV emission feature indicative of photoionized gas with ionization parameter log$xi$$=$$3.75^{+0.27}_{-0.38}$~erg~s$^{-1}$~cm and a column density of $text{log}N_H > 22$~cm$^{-2}$ localized within $sim$2~pc from the X-ray source, and (vi) possible signatures for a highly ionized disk wind. Together with previous evidence for intense molecular line emission, these results indicate that 3C~120 is likely a late state merger undergoing strong AGN feedback.

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