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Nustar Reveals the Extreme Properties of the Super-Eddington Accreting Supermassive Black Hole in PG 1247+267PG1247+267 is one of the most luminous known quasars at z approximately 2 and is a strongly super-Eddington accreting supermassive black hole (SMBH) candidate. We obtained NuSTAR data of this intriguing source in December 2014 with the aim of studying its high-energy emission, leveraging the broad band covered by the new NuSTAR and the archival XMM-Newton data. Several measurements are in agreement with the super-Eddington scenario for PG1247+267: the soft power law (gamma = 2.3 +/- 0.1); the weak ionized Fe emission line; and a hint of the presence of outflowing ionized gas surrounding the SMBH. The presence of an extreme reflection component is instead at odds with the high accretion rate proposed for this quasar. This can be explained with three different scenarios; all of them are in good agreement with the existing data, but imply very different conclusions: i) a variable primary power law observed in a low state, superimposed on a reflection component echoing a past, higher flux state; ii) a power law continuum obscured by an ionized, Compton thick, partial covering absorber; and iii) a relativistic disk reflector in a lamp-post geometry, with low coronal height and high BH spin. The first model is able to explain the high reflection component in terms of variability. The second does not require any reflection to reproduce the hard emission, while a rather low high-energy cutoff of approximately 100 keV is detected for the first time in such a high redshift source. The third model require a face-on geometry, which may affect the SMBH mass and Eddington ratio measurements. Deeper X-ray broad-band data are required in order to distinguish between these possibilities.
Document ID
20170003081
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Lanzuisi, G.
(Bologna Univ. Italy)
Perna, M.
(Bologna Univ. Italy)
Comastri, A.
(Observatorio Astronomico di Bologna Bologna, Italy)
Cappi, M.
(Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (INAF-IASF) Bologna, Italy)
Dadina, M.
(Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (INAF-IASF) Bologna, Italy)
Marinucci, A.
(Universita degli Studi Roma Tre Rome, Italy)
Masini, A.
(Bologna Univ. Italy)
Matt, G.
(Universita degli Studi Roma Tre Rome, Italy)
Vagnetti, F.
(Rome Univ. Rome, Italy)
Vignali, C.
(Bologna Univ. Italy)
Zhang, W. W.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Date Acquired
April 6, 2017
Publication Date
May 13, 2016
Publication Information
Publication: Astronomy & Astrophysics
Publisher: EDP Sciences
Volume: 590
ISSN: 0004-6361
e-ISSN: 1432-0746
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN40957
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: ERC G 340442
CONTRACT_GRANT: IC120009
CONTRACT_GRANT: Caltech 44A-1092750
CONTRACT_GRANT: CIG G "eEASY" No. 321913
CONTRACT_GRANT: FONDECYT-1141218
CONTRACT_GRANT: Basal-CATA PFB-06/2007
CONTRACT_GRANT: ASI/INAF I/037/12/0-011/13
CONTRACT_GRANT: ASI-INAF 2014-045-R
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
accretion disks
galaxies: active / galaxies: nuclei / quasars: individual: PG 1247+267 / accreti

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