J 2024

Investigating Model Dependencies for Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei: A Case Study of NGC 3982

KALLOVÁ, Kristína, Peter G. BOORMAN a Claudio RICCI

Základní údaje

Originální název

Investigating Model Dependencies for Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei: A Case Study of NGC 3982

Autoři

KALLOVÁ, Kristína (703 Slovensko, domácí), Peter G. BOORMAN a Claudio RICCI

Vydání

Astrophysical Journal, IOP Publishing Ltd, 2024, 0004-637X

Další údaje

Jazyk

angličtina

Typ výsledku

Článek v odborném periodiku

Obor

10308 Astronomy

Stát vydavatele

Velká Británie a Severní Irsko

Utajení

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Odkazy

Impakt faktor

Impact factor: 4.900 v roce 2022

Organizační jednotka

Přírodovědecká fakulta

UT WoS

001209441100001

Klíčová slova anglicky

X-ray active galactic nuclei; Active galactic nuclei; Low-luminosity active galactic nuclei

Štítky

Příznaky

Mezinárodní význam, Recenzováno
Změněno: 10. 5. 2024 13:06, Mgr. Marie Šípková, DiS.

Anotace

V originále

X-ray spectroscopy of heavily obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) offers a unique opportunity to study the circumnuclear environment of accreting supermassive black holes. However, individual models describing the obscurer have unique parameter spaces that give distinct parameter posterior distributions when fit to the same data. To assess the impact of model-specific parameter dependencies, we present a case study of the nearby heavily obscured low-luminosity AGN NGC 3982, which has a variety of column density estimations reported in the literature. We fit the same broadband XMM-Newton+NuSTAR spectra of the source with five unique obscuration models and generate posterior parameter distributions for each. By using global parameter exploration, we traverse the full prior-defined parameter space to accurately reproduce complex posterior shapes and inter-parameter degeneracies. The unique model posteriors for the line-of-sight column density are broadly consistent, predicting Compton-thick NH > 1.5 × 1024 cm−2 at the 3σ confidence level. The posterior median intrinsic X-ray luminosity in the 2–10 keV band was found to differ substantially, however, with values in the range log L2–10 keV/ erg s−1 = 40.9–42.1 for the individual models. We additionally show that the posterior distributions for each model occupy unique regions of their respective multidimensional parameter spaces and how such differences can propagate into the inferred properties of the central engine. We conclude by showcasing the improvement in parameter inference attainable with the High Energy X-ray Probe, with its uniquely broad, simultaneous, and high-sensitivity bandpass of 0.2–80 keV.