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Register a new userEnergy-dependent variability of the bare Seyfert 1 galaxy Ark 120
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We present results from a detailed spectral-timing analysis of a long ~486 ks XMM-Newton observation of the bare Seyfert 1 galaxy Ark 120 which showed alternating diminution and increment in the 0.3-10 keV X-ray flux over four consecutive orbits in 2014. We study the energy-dependent variability of Ark 120 through broad-band X-ray spectroscopy, fractional root-mean-squared (rms) spectral modelling, hardness-intensity diagram and flux-flux analysis. The X-ray (0.3-10 keV) spectra are well fitted by a thermally Comptonized primary continuum with two (blurred and distant) reflection components and an optically thick, warm Comptonization component for the soft X-ray excess emission below ~2 keV. During the first and third observations, the fractional X-ray variability amplitude decreases with energy while for second and fourth observations, X-ray variability spectra are found to be inverted-crescent and crescent shaped respectively. The rms variability spectra are well modelled by two constant reflection components, a soft excess component with variable luminosity and a variable intrinsic continuum with the normalization and spectral slope being correlated. The spectral softening of the source with both the soft excess and UV luminosities favour Comptonization models where the soft excess and primary X-ray emission are produced through Compton up-scattering of the UV and UV/soft X-ray seed photons in the putative warm and hot coronae, respectively. Our analyses imply that the observed energy-dependent variability of Ark 120 is most likely due to variations in the spectral shape and luminosity of the hot corona and to variations in the luminosity of the warm corona, both of which are driven by variations in the seed photon flux.
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We present the long-term X-ray spectral and temporal analysis of a bare-type AGN Ark 120. We consider the observations from XMM-Newton, Suzaku, Swift, and NuSTAR from 2003 to 2018. The spectral properties of this source are studied using various phenomenological and physical models present in the literature. We report (a) the variations of several physical parameters, such as the temperature and optical depth of the electron cloud, the size of the Compton cloud, and accretion rate for the last fifteen years. The spectral variations are explained from the change in the accretion dynamics; (b) the X-ray time delay between 0.2-2 keV and 3-10 keV light-curves exhibited zero-delay in 2003, positive delay of 4.71 pm 2.1 ks in 2013, and negative delay of 4.15 pm 1.5 ks in 2014. The delays are explained considering Comptonization, reflection, and light-crossing time; (c) the long term intrinsic luminosities obtained using nthcomp, of the soft-excess and the primary continuum show a correlation with a Pearson Correlation Coefficient of 0.922. This indicates that the soft-excess and the primary continuum are originated from the same physical process. From a physical model fitting, we infer that the soft excess for Ark 120 could be due to a small number of scatterings in the Compton cloud. Using Monte-Carlo simulations, we show that indeed the spectra corresponding to fewer scatterings could provide a steeper soft-excess power-law in the 0.2-3 keV range. Simulated luminosities are found to be in agreement with the observed values.
We analyse eight XMM-Newton observations of the bright Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxy Arakelian 564 (Ark 564). These observations, separated by ~6 days, allow us to look for correlations between the simultaneous UV emission (from the Optical Monitor) with not only the X-ray flux but also with the different X-ray spectral parameters. The X-ray spectra from all the observations are found to be adequately fitted by a double Comptonization model where the soft excess and the hard X-ray power law are represented by thermal Comptonization in a low temperature plasma and hot corona, respectively. Apart from the fluxes of each component, the hard X-ray power law index is found to be variable. These results suggest that the variability is associated with changes in the geometry of the inner region. The UV emission is found to be variable and well correlated with the high energy index while the correlations with the fluxes of each component are found to be weaker. Using viscous time-scale arguments we rule out the possibility that the UV variation is due to fluctuating accretion rate in the outer disc. If the UV variation is driven by X-ray reprocessing, then our results indicate that the strength of the X-ray reprocessing depends more on the geometry of the X-ray producing inner region rather than on the X-ray luminosity alone.
We present measurement of the cut-off energy, a proxy for the temperature of the corona in the nuclear continuum of the Seyfert 1 galaxy 3C 120 using $sim$120 ks of observation from ${it NuSTAR}$. The quality broad band spectrum from 3$-$79 keV has enabled us to measure the Compton reflection component (R) and to constrain the temperature of the coronal plasma. Fitting one of the advanced Comptonization models, ${it compPS}$ to the observed broad band spectrum we derived the kinetic temperature of the electrons in the corona to be $kT_e = 25 pm 2$ keV with Compton ${it y}$ parameter of $y = 2.2 pm 0.1$ for a slab geometry and $kT_e = 26_{-0}^{+2}$ keV with a $y$ of $2.99_{-0.18}^{+2.99}$ assuming a spherical geometry. We noticed excess emission from $sim$10$-$35 keV arising due to Compton reflection and a broad Fe $Kalpha$ line at 6.43 keV with an equivalent width of 60 $pm$ 5 eV. The variations in count rates in the soft (3$-$10 keV) band is found to be more compared to the hard (10$-$79 keV) band with mean fractional variability amplitudes of 0.065$pm$0.002 and 0.052$pm$0.003 for the soft and hard bands respectively. 3C 120 is known to have a strong jet, however, our results indicate that it is either dormant or its contribution if any to the X-ray emission is negligible during the epoch of ${it NuSTAR}$ observation.
The Seyfert 1 galaxy, Ark 120, is a prototype example of the so-called class of bare nucleus AGN, whereby there is no known evidence for the presence of ionized gas along the direct line of sight. Here deep ($>400$ ks exposure), high resolution X-ray spectroscopy of Ark 120 is presented, from XMM-Newton observations which were carried out in March 2014, together with simultaneous Chandra/HETG exposures. The high resolution spectra confirmed the lack of intrinsic absorbing gas associated with Ark 120, with the only X-ray absorption present originating from the ISM of our own Galaxy, with a possible slight enhancement of the Oxygen abundance required with respect to the expected ISM values in the Solar neighbourhood. However, the presence of several soft X-ray emission lines are revealed for the first time in the XMM-Newton RGS spectrum, associated to the AGN and arising from the He and H-like ions of N, O, Ne and Mg. The He-like line profiles of N, O and Ne appear velocity broadened, with typical FWHM widths of $sim5000$ km s$^{-1}$, whereas the H-like profiles are unresolved. From the clean measurement of the He-like triplets, we deduce that the broad lines arise from gas of density $n_{rm e}sim10^{11}$ cm$^{-3}$, while the photoionization calculations infer that the emitting gas covers at least 10 percent of $4pi$ steradian. Thus the broad soft X-ray profiles appear coincident with an X-ray component of the optical-UV Broad Line Region on sub-pc scales, whereas the narrow profiles originate on larger pc scales, perhaps coincident with the AGN Narrow Line Region. The observations show that Ark 120 is not intrinsically bare and substantial X-ray emitting gas exists out of our direct line of sight towards this AGN.
We present the results of a long-term (1999--2010) spectral optical monitoring campaign of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) Ark 564, which shows a strong Fe II line emission in the optical. This AGN is a narrow line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies, a group of AGNs with specific spectral characteristics. We analyze the light curves of the permitted Ha, Hb, optical Fe II line fluxes, and the continuum flux in order to search for a time lag between them. Additionally, in order to estimate the contribution of iron lines from different multiplets, we fit the Hb and Fe II lines with a sum of Gaussian components. We found that during the monitoring period the spectral variation (F_max/F_min) of Ark 564 was between 1.5 for Ha to 1.8 for the Fe II lines. The correlation between the Fe II and Hb flux variations is of higher significance than that of Ha and Hb (whose correlation is almost absent). The permitted-line profiles are Lorentzian-like, and did not change shape during the monitoring period. We investigated, in detail, the optical Fe II emission and found different degrees of correlation between the Fe II emission arising from different spectral multiplets and the continuum flux. The relatively weak and different degrees of correlations between permitted lines and continuum fluxes indicate a rather complex source of ionization of the broad line emission region.
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