2003ApJ...596L.167I

We present X-ray observations of the ultraluminous infrared galaxy, UGC 5101, thought to contain a buried active galactic nucleus (AGN) based on observations in other wave bands. We detected an absorbed hard component at greater than 3 keV, as well as soft emission in the energy range 0.5-2 keV. The soft X-ray component, possibly due to a modestly dust-obscured extended starburst, has an absorption-corrected 0.5-2 keV X-ray luminosity of L_X(0.5-2 keV)=1.2x10⁴¹ ergs/s. The 0.5-2 keV X-ray-to-infrared luminosity ratio is a factor of ∼5 lower than typical values for a normal starburst, suggesting that this extended starburst is unlikely to be energetically dominant in UGC 5101. The most plausible origin of the absorbed hard component is the putative buried AGN. The 6.4 keV Fe Kα emission line has a modest equivalent width (∼400 eV), suggesting that this hard component is direct emission from the AGN, rather than a scattered component. The absorption-corrected 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity of the buried AGN was estimated to be L_X(2-10 keV)∼5x10⁴² ergs/s. The intrinsic 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity and the 2-10 keV X-ray-to-infrared luminosity ratio are both comparable to values measured for Mrk 463, a Seyfert 2 galaxy of similar infrared luminosity.