2017ApJ...835..179O -
Astrophys. J., 835, 179-179 (2017/February-1)
Shedding light on the Compton-thick active galactic nucleus in the ultraluminous infrared galaxy UGC 5101 with broadband X-ray spectroscopy.
ODA S., TANIMOTO A., UEDA Y., IMANISHI M., TERASHIMA Y. and RICCI C.
Abstract (from CDS):
We report the broadband X-ray spectra of the ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) UGC 5101 in the 0.25-100 keV band observed with the Swift/Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), Suzaku, XMM-Newton, and Chandra. A Compton-thick active galactic nucleus (AGN) obscured with a hydrogen column density of ~1.3×1024 cm–2 is detected above 10 keV. A spectral fit with a numerical torus model favors a large half-opening angle of the torus, 41°, suggesting that the covering fraction of material heavily obscuring the X-ray source is moderate. The intrinsic 2-10 keV luminosity is determined to be ~1.4×1043 erg s–1, which is ~2.5 times larger than the previous estimate using only data below 10 keV with a simple spectral model. We find that UGC 5101 shows the ratio between the [O iv] 26 µm line and 2-10 keV luminosities similar to those of normal Seyfert galaxies, along with other ULIRGs observed with NuSTAR, indicating that a significant portion of local ULIRGs are not really "X-ray faint" with respect to the flux of forbidden lines originating from the narrow-line region. We propose a possible scenario that (1) the AGN in UGC 5101 is surrounded not only by Compton-thick matter located close to the equatorial plane but also by Compton-thin (NH∼1021 cm–2) matter in the torus-hole region and (2) it is accreting at a high Eddington rate with a steep UV to X-ray spectral energy distribution. Nevertheless, we argue that AGNs in many ULIRGs do not look extraordinary (i.e., extremely X-ray faint), as suggested by recent works, compared with normal Seyferts.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Journal keyword(s):
galaxies: active - galaxies: individual: UGC 5101 - X-rays: galaxies - X-rays: galaxies
Simbad objects:
8
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