Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2010-05-10
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Accepted for publication in A&A, 15 pages, 13 figures
Scientific paper
We present the first detailed X-ray analysis of three AGN, the Seyfert 1 galaxies UGC 3142 and ESO 140-43, and the Seyfert 2 galaxy ESO 383-18, in order to study the geometry and the physical characteristics of their absorbers. High quality XMM-Newton EPIC and RGS data were analysed, as well as Swift/XRT and BAT and INTEGRAL IBIS/ISGRI data, in order to cover the 0.3--110 keV energy range. For ESO 140-43 also XMM-Newton/OM and Swift/UVOT data were used. We studied the variability of the three AGN on a time-scale of seconds using the EPIC/PN light curves, and the long-term time-scale variability of ESO 140-43 using two observations performed 6 months apart by XMM-Newton. The spectra of the three Seyfert galaxies present a "soft excess'' at energies E < 2 keV above a power-law continuum that can be modeled by complex absorption, without any additional emission component. The X-ray sources in UGC 3142 and ESO 383-18 are absorbed by two layers of neutral material, with covering fractions f_1=0.92 and f_2=0.57 for UGC 3142, and f_1=0.97 and f_2 = 0.86 for ESO 383-18. While the clumpy absorber could be part of a disc wind or of the broad line region for UGC 3142, in the case of ESO 383-18 a clumpy torus plus Compton thin dust lanes are more likely. The spectra of ESO 140-43 can be well fitted using a power law absorbed by three clumpy ionized absorbers with different covering factors, column densities, and ionization parameters, likely part of a moving clumpy system, which might be a disc wind or the broad line region. The strong spectral and flux variability on a time scale of 6 months seen in ESO 140-43 is likely due to changes in the moving absorbers. The variation of the covering factor of one of the three ionized absorbers could be detected, on a kilo-seconds time-scale, in the EPIC light-curve of ESO 140-43.
Audard Marc
Beckmann Volker
Courvoisier Thierry J. -L.
Ricci Claudia
No associations
LandOfFree
Multi-Zone warm and cold clumpy absorbers in 3 Seyfert galaxies does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Multi-Zone warm and cold clumpy absorbers in 3 Seyfert galaxies, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Multi-Zone warm and cold clumpy absorbers in 3 Seyfert galaxies will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-628582