NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Chandra High Resolution Spectroscopy of the Circumnuclear Matter in the Broad Line Radio Galaxy, 3C 445We present evidence for X-ray line emitting and absorbing gas in the nucleus of the Broad-Line Radio Galaxy (BLRG), 3C445. A 200 ks Chandra LETG observation of 3C 445 reveals the presence of several highly ionized emission lines in the soft X-ray spectrum, primarily from the He and H-like ions of O, Ne, Mg and Si. Radiative recombination emission is detected from O VII and O VIII, indicating that the emitting gas is photoionized. The He-like emission appears to be resolved into forbidden and intercombination line components, which implies a high density of greater than 10(sup 10) cm(sup -3), while the lines are velocity broadened with a mean width of 2600 km s(sup -1). The density and widths of the ionized lines indicate an origin of the gas on sub-parsec scales in the Broad Line Region (BLR). The X-ray continuum of 3C 445 is heavily obscured by a photoionized absorber of column density N(sub H) = 2 x 10(sup 23) cm(sup -2) and ionization parameter log xi = 1.4 erg cm s(sup -1). However the view of the X-ray line emission is unobscured, which requires the absorber to be located at radii well within any parsec scale molecular torus. Instead we suggest that the X-ray absorber in 3C 445 may be associated with an outflowing, but clumpy accretion disk wind, with an observed outflow velocity of approximately 10000 km s(sup -1).
Document ID
20100024536
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Reeves, J. N.
(Keele Univ. United Kingdom)
Gofford, J.
(Keele Univ. United Kingdom)
Braito, V.
(Leicester Univ. United Kingdom)
Sambruna, R.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2010
Subject Category
Geophysics
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
No Preview Available