Anatomy of the AGN in NGC 5548. II. The spatial, temporal, and physical nature of the outflow from HST/COS Observations
Journal
ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
Date Issued
2015
Author(s)
Arav, N.
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Chamberlain, C.
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Kriss, G. A.
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Kaastra, J. S.
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•
Mehdipour, M.
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Petrucci, P. -O.
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Steenbrugge, K. C.
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Behar, E.
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Bianchi, S.
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Boissay, R.
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Branduardi-Raymont, G.
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Costantini, E.
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Ely, J. C.
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Ebrero, J.
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di Gesu, L.
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Harrison, F. A.
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Kaspi, S.
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Malzac, J.
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De Marco, B.
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Matt, G.
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Nandra, K. P.
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Paltani, S.
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Peterson, B. M.
•
•
•
Pozo Nuñez, F.
•
•
Seta, H.
•
•
de Vries, C. P.
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Walton, D. J.
•
Whewell, M.
DOI
10.1051/0004-6361/201425302
Description
This work was supported by NASA through grants for HST program number 13184 from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS5-26555. SRON is supported financially by NWO, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. M.M. acknowledges the support of a Studentship Enhancement Programme awarded by the UK Science Technology Facilities Council (STFC). P.-O.P. and F.U. thank financial support from the CNES and from the CNRS/PICS. F.U. acknowledges Ph.D. funding from the VINCI program of the French-Italian University. K.C.S. wants to acknowledge financial support from the Fondo Fortalecimiento de la Productividad Cientfica VRIDT 2013. E.B. is supported by grants from Israel’s MoST, ISF (1163/10), and I-CORE program (1937/12). J.M. acknowledges funding from CNRS/PNHE and CNRS/PICS in France. G.M. and F.U. acknowledge financial support from the Italian Space Agency under grant ASI/INAF I/037/12/0-011/13. B.M.P. acknowledges support from the US NSF through grant AST-1008882. M.C., S.B., G.M. and A.D.R. acknowledge INAF/PICS support. G.P. acknowledges support via an EU Marie Curie Intra-European fellowship under contract no. FP-PEOPLE-2012-IEF-331095. M.W. acknowledges the support of a Ph.D. studentship awarded by the UK Science Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The data used in this research are stored in the public archives of the satellites that are involved. We thank the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern for support. This work is based on observations obtained with XMM-Newton , an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and the USA (NASA). It is also based on observations with INTEGRAL, an ESA project with instrument and science data center funded by ESA member states (especially the PI countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain), Czech Republic, and Poland and with the participation of Russia and the USA. This work made use of data supplied by the UK Swift Science Data Centre at the University if Leicester. This research made use of the Chandra Transmission Grating Catalog and archive ( http://tgcat.mit.edu ). This research has made use of data obtained with the NuSTAR mission, a project led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and funded by NASA, and has utilized the NuSTAR Data Analysis Software (NUSTARDAS) jointly developed by the ASI Science Data Center (ASDC, Italy) and Caltech (USA). Figure 6 was created by Ann Feild from STScI.
Abstract
Context. AGN outflows are thought to influence the evolution of their host galaxies and of super massive black holes. Our deep multiwavelength campaign on NGC 5548 has revealed a new, unusually strong X-ray obscuration, accompanied by broad UV absorption troughs observed for the first time in this object. The X-ray obscuration caused a dramatic decrease in the incident ionizing flux on the outflow that produces the long-studied narrow UV absorption lines in this AGN. The resulting data allowed us to construct a comprehensive physical, spatial, and temporal picture for this enduring AGN wind.
Aims: We aim to determine the distance of the narrow UV outflow components from the central source, their total column-density, and the mechanism responsible for their observed absorption variability.
Methods: We study the UV spectra acquired during the campaign, as well as from four previous epochs (1998-2011). Our main analysis tools are ionic column-density extraction techniques, photoionization models based on the code CLOUDY, and collisional excitation simulations.
Results: A simple model based on a fixed total column-density absorber, reacting to changes in ionizing illumination, matches the very different ionization states seen in five spectroscopic epochs spanning 16 years. The main component of the enduring outflow is situated at 3.5 ± 1.1 pc from the central source, and its distance and number density are similar to those of the narrow-emitting-line region in this object. Three other components are situated between 5-70 pc and two are farther than 100 pc. The wealth of observational constraints and the anti-correlation between the observed X-ray and UV flux in the 2002 and 2013 epochs make our physical model a leading contender for interpreting trough variability data of quasar outflows.
Conclusions: This campaign, in combination with prior UV and X-ray data, yields the first simple model that can explain the physical characteristics and the substantial variability observed in an AGN outflow.
Aims: We aim to determine the distance of the narrow UV outflow components from the central source, their total column-density, and the mechanism responsible for their observed absorption variability.
Methods: We study the UV spectra acquired during the campaign, as well as from four previous epochs (1998-2011). Our main analysis tools are ionic column-density extraction techniques, photoionization models based on the code CLOUDY, and collisional excitation simulations.
Results: A simple model based on a fixed total column-density absorber, reacting to changes in ionizing illumination, matches the very different ionization states seen in five spectroscopic epochs spanning 16 years. The main component of the enduring outflow is situated at 3.5 ± 1.1 pc from the central source, and its distance and number density are similar to those of the narrow-emitting-line region in this object. Three other components are situated between 5-70 pc and two are farther than 100 pc. The wealth of observational constraints and the anti-correlation between the observed X-ray and UV flux in the 2002 and 2013 epochs make our physical model a leading contender for interpreting trough variability data of quasar outflows.
Conclusions: This campaign, in combination with prior UV and X-ray data, yields the first simple model that can explain the physical characteristics and the substantial variability observed in an AGN outflow.
Appendix A is available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org
Volume
577
Start page
A37
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