KALLOVÁ, Kristína, Peter G. BOORMAN and Claudio RICCI. Investigating Model Dependencies for Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei: A Case Study of NGC 3982. Astrophysical Journal. IOP Publishing Ltd, 2024, vol. 966, No 1, p. 1-20. ISSN 0004-637X. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad3235.
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Basic information
Original name Investigating Model Dependencies for Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei: A Case Study of NGC 3982
Authors KALLOVÁ, Kristína (703 Slovakia, belonging to the institution), Peter G. BOORMAN and Claudio RICCI.
Edition Astrophysical Journal, IOP Publishing Ltd, 2024, 0004-637X.
Other information
Original language English
Type of outcome Article in a journal
Field of Study 10308 Astronomy
Country of publisher United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Confidentiality degree is not subject to a state or trade secret
WWW URL URL
Impact factor Impact factor: 4.900 in 2022
Organization unit Faculty of Science
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad3235
UT WoS 001209441100001
Keywords in English X-ray active galactic nuclei; Active galactic nuclei; Low-luminosity active galactic nuclei
Tags rivok
Tags International impact, Reviewed
Changed by Changed by: Mgr. Marie Šípková, DiS., učo 437722. Changed: 10/5/2024 13:06.
Abstract
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.
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