Issue |
A&A
Volume 651, July 2021
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A58 | |
Number of page(s) | 11 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834963 | |
Published online | 14 July 2021 |
Physically motivated X-ray obscurer models
1
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Giessenbachstrasse, 85741 Garching, Germany
2
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Instituto de Astrofísica, Casilla 306, Santiago 22, Chile
e-mail: johannes.buchner.acad@gmx.com
3
Excellence Cluster Universe, Boltzmannstr. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
4
Millenium Institute of Astrophysics, Vicuña MacKenna 4860, 7820436 Macul, Santiago, Chile
5
Cahill Center for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, 1216 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
6
Yale Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics, 52 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
7
Department of Physics, Yale University, PO Box 2018120, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
8
Kagoshima University, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan
9
Space Science Institute, 4750 Walnut Street, Suite 205, Boulder, CO 80301, USA
Received:
20
December
2018
Accepted:
1
June
2021
Context. The nuclear obscurer of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is poorly understood in terms of its origin, geometry, and dynamics.
Aims. We investigate whether physically motivated geometries emerging from hydro-radiative simulations can be differentiated with X-ray reflection spectroscopy.
Methods. For two new geometries, the radiative fountain model and a warped disk, we release spectral models produced with the ray tracing code XARS. We contrast these models with spectra of three nearby AGN taken by NuSTAR and Swift/BAT.
Results. Along heavily obscured sightlines, the models present different 4−20 keV continuum spectra. These can be differentiated by current observations. Spectral fits of the Circinus Galaxy favour the warped disk model over the radiative fountain, and clumpy or smooth torus models.
Conclusions. The necessary reflector (NH ≥ 1025 cm2) suggests a hidden population of heavily Compton-thick AGN amongst local galaxies. X-ray reflection spectroscopy is a promising pathway to understand the nuclear obscurer in AGN.
Key words: galaxies: active / accretion / accretion disks / methods: numerical / X-rays: general / radiative transfer / scattering
© J. Buchner et al. 2021
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Open Access funding provided by Max Planck Society.
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