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Register a new userThe hardest X-ray source in the ASCA Large Sky Survey: Discovery of a new type 2 Seyfert
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Masaaki Sakano
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We present results of ASCA deep exposure observations of the hardest X-ray source discovered in the ASCA Large Sky Survey (LSS) project, designated as AX J131501+3141. We extract its accurate X-ray spectrum, taking account of the contamination from a nearby soft source (AX J131502+3142), separated only by 1. AX J131501+3141 exhibits a large absorption of NH = (6 +4 -2)x 10^22 H/cm^2 with a photon index Gamma = 1.5 +0.7 -0.6. The 2--10 keV flux was about 5 x 10^-13 erg/s/cm^2 and was time variable by a factor of 30% in 0.5 year. From the highly absorbed X-ray spectrum and the time variability, as well as the results of the optical follow-up observations (Akiyama et al. 1998, astro-ph/9801173), we conclude that AX J131501+3141 is a type 2 Seyfert galaxy. Discovery of such a low flux and highly absorbed X-ray source could have a significant impact on the origin of the cosmic X-ray background.
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We present results of optical identification of the X-ray sources detected in the ASCA Large Sky Survey. Optical spectroscopic observations were done for 34 X-ray sources which were detected with the SIS in the 2-7 keV band above 3.5 sigma. The sources are identified with 30 AGNs, 2 clusters of galaxies, and 1 galactic star. Only 1 source is still unidentified. The flux limit of the sample corresponds to 1 x 10^{-13} erg s^{-1} cm^{-2} in the 2-10 keV band. Based on the sample, the paper discusses optical and X-ray spectral properties of the AGNs, contribution of the sources to the Cosmic X-ray Background, and redshift and luminosity distributions of the AGNs. An interesting result is that the redshift distribution of the AGNs suggests a deficiency of high-redshift (0.5 < z < 2) and luminous (Lx(2-10 keV) > 10^{44} erg s^{-1}) absorbed narrow-line AGNs (so called type 2 QSOs).
The ASCA satellite made 107 pointing observations on a 5 x 5 deg^2 region around the center of our Milky Way Galaxy (the Galactic Center) from 1993 to 1999. In the X-ray images of the 0.7--3 keV or 3--10 keV bands, we found 52 point sources and a dozen diffuse sources. All the point sources are uniformly fitted with an absorbed power-law model. For selected bright sources, Sgr A*, AX J1745.6-2901, A 1742-294, SLX 1744-300, GRO J1744-28, SLX 1737-282, GRS 1734-292, AX J1749.2-2725, KS 1741-293, GRS 1741.9-2853, and an unusual flare source XTE J1739-302, we present further detailed spectral and timing analyses, and discuss their nature. The dozen extended X-ray sources comprise radio supernova remnants, giant molecular clouds, and some new discoveries. Most show emission lines from either highly ionized atoms or low-ionized irons. The X-ray spectra were fitted with either a thin thermal or power-law model. This paper summarizes the results and provides the ASCA X-ray source catalogue in the Galactic Center region.
We present an ASCA discovery of diffuse hard X-ray emission from the Sgr C complex with its peak in the vicinity of the molecular cloud core. The X-ray spectrum is characterized by a strong 6.4-keV line and large absorption. These properties suggest that Sgr C is a new X-ray reflection nebula which emits fluorescent and scattered X-rays via irradiation from an external X-ray source. We found no adequately bright source in the immediate Sgr C vicinity to fully account for the fluorescence. The irradiating source may be the Galactic nucleus Sgr A*, which was brighter in the past than it is now as is suggested from observations of the first X-ray reflection nebula Sgr B2.
We report the detection of weak pulsations from the archetypal ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC 1313 X-2. Acceleration searches reveal sinusoidal pulsations in segments of two out of six new deep observations of this object, with a period of $sim$ 1.5 s and a pulsed fraction of $sim$ 5%. We use Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that the individual detections are unlikely to originate in false Poisson noise detections given their very close frequencies; their strong similarity to other pulsations detected from ULXs also argues they are real. The presence of a large bubble nebula surrounding NGC 1313 X-2 implies an age of order 1 Myr for the accreting phase of the ULX, which implies that the neutron stars magnetic field has not been suppressed over time by accreted material, nor has the neutron star collapsed into a black hole, despite an average energy output into the nebula two orders of magnitude above Eddington. This argues that most of the accreted material has been expelled over the lifetime of the ULX, favouring physical models including strong winds and/or jets for neutron star ULXs.
(Abridged) We describe a sample of low-mass Seyfert 2 galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, having a median absolute magnitude of M_g = -19.0 mag. These galaxies are Type 2 counterparts to the Seyfert 1 galaxies with intermediate-mass black holes identified by Greene & Ho (2004). Spectra obtained with the Echellette Spectrograph and Imager at the Keck Observatory are used to determine the central stellar velocity dispersions and to examine the emission-line properties. Overall, the stellar velocity dispersions are low (40-90 km/s), and we find 12 objects having sigma < 60 km/s, a range where very few Seyfert 2 galaxies were previously known. The sample follows the correlation between stellar velocity dispersion and FWHM([OIII]) seen in more massive Seyfert galaxies, indicating that the narrow-line FWHM values are largely determined by virial motion of gas in the central regions of the host galaxies. Using estimates of the black hole masses and AGN bolometric luminosities, we find that these galaxies are typically radiating at a high fraction of their Eddington rate, with a median L_bol/L_Edd = 0.4. We identify one galaxy, SDSS J110912.40+612346.7, as a Type 2 analog of the nearby dwarf Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4395, with a nearly identical narrow-line spectrum and a dwarf spiral host of only M_g = -16.8 mag. Forthcoming observations of this sample, including X-ray and mid-infrared spectroscopy, can provide new tests of the obscuring torus model for active galaxies at low luminosities.
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