Studies of the high luminosity quasar, PDS 456

Details Studies of the high luminosity quasar, PDS 456 Studies of the high luminosity quasar, PDS 456

2000-05-08

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0005175v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Poster contribution presented at the Joint MPE,AIP,ESO workshop on NLS1s, Bad Honnef, Dec. 1999, to appear in New Astronomy Re

Scientific paper

X-ray and multi-wavelength observations of the most luminous known local (z<0.3) AGN, the recently discovered radio-quiet quasar PDS 456, are presented. The spectral energy distribution shows that PDS 456 has a bolometric luminosity of 1e47 erg/s, peaking in the UV. The X-ray spectrum obtained by ASCA and RXTE shows considerable complexity. The most striking feature observed is a deep, highly-ionised, iron K edge (8.7 keV, rest-frame), originating via reprocessing from highly ionised material, possibly the inner accretion disk. PDS 456 was found to be remarkably variable for its luminosity; in one flare the X-ray flux doubled in just about 15 ksec. If confirmed this would be an unprecedented event in a high-luminosity source, with a light-crossing time corresponding to about 2RS. The implications are that either flaring occurs within the very central regions, or else that PDS 456 is a super-Eddington or relativistically beamed system.

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