A Compton-thick Wind in the High Luminosity Quasar, PDS 456
PDS 456 is a nearby (z=0.184), luminous (L_bol ~10^47 erg/s) type I quasar. A deep 190 ks Suzaku observation in February 2007 revealed the complex, broad band X-ray spectrum of PDS 456. The Suzaku spectrum exhibits highly statistically significant absorption features near 9 keV in the quasar rest--f...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Format: | Journal article |
Language: | English |
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Institute of Physics Publishing
2009
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author | Reeves, J O'Brien, P Braito, V Behar, E Miller, L Turner, T Fabian, A Kaspi, S Mushotzky, R Ward, M |
author_facet | Reeves, J O'Brien, P Braito, V Behar, E Miller, L Turner, T Fabian, A Kaspi, S Mushotzky, R Ward, M |
author_sort | Reeves, J |
collection | OXFORD |
description | PDS 456 is a nearby (z=0.184), luminous (L_bol ~10^47 erg/s) type I quasar. A deep 190 ks Suzaku observation in February 2007 revealed the complex, broad band X-ray spectrum of PDS 456. The Suzaku spectrum exhibits highly statistically significant absorption features near 9 keV in the quasar rest--frame. We show that the most plausible origin of the absorption is from blue-shifted resonance (1s-2p) transitions of hydrogen-like iron (at 6.97 keV in the rest frame). This indicates that a highly ionized outflow may be present moving at near relativistic velocities (~0.25c). A possible hard X-ray excess is detected above 15 keV with HXD (at 99.8% confidence), which may arise from high column density gas (Nh>10^24cm^-2) partially covering the X-ray emission, or through strong Compton reflection. Here we propose that the iron K-shell absorption in PDS 456 is associated with a thick, possibly clumpy outflow, covering about 20% of $4\pi$ steradian solid angle. The outflow is likely launched from the inner accretion disk, within 15-100 gravitational radii of the black hole. The kinetic power of the outflow may be similar to the bolometric luminosity of PDS 456. Such a powerful wind could have a significant effect on the co-evolution of the host galaxy and its supermassive black hole, through feedback. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:58:03Z |
format | Journal article |
id | oxford-uuid:61192f5e-1527-4e57-9b43-087eac0b09bc |
institution | University of Oxford |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:58:03Z |
publishDate | 2009 |
publisher | Institute of Physics Publishing |
record_format | dspace |
spelling | oxford-uuid:61192f5e-1527-4e57-9b43-087eac0b09bc2022-03-26T17:57:40ZA Compton-thick Wind in the High Luminosity Quasar, PDS 456Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:61192f5e-1527-4e57-9b43-087eac0b09bcEnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordInstitute of Physics Publishing2009Reeves, JO'Brien, PBraito, VBehar, EMiller, LTurner, TFabian, AKaspi, SMushotzky, RWard, MPDS 456 is a nearby (z=0.184), luminous (L_bol ~10^47 erg/s) type I quasar. A deep 190 ks Suzaku observation in February 2007 revealed the complex, broad band X-ray spectrum of PDS 456. The Suzaku spectrum exhibits highly statistically significant absorption features near 9 keV in the quasar rest--frame. We show that the most plausible origin of the absorption is from blue-shifted resonance (1s-2p) transitions of hydrogen-like iron (at 6.97 keV in the rest frame). This indicates that a highly ionized outflow may be present moving at near relativistic velocities (~0.25c). A possible hard X-ray excess is detected above 15 keV with HXD (at 99.8% confidence), which may arise from high column density gas (Nh>10^24cm^-2) partially covering the X-ray emission, or through strong Compton reflection. Here we propose that the iron K-shell absorption in PDS 456 is associated with a thick, possibly clumpy outflow, covering about 20% of $4\pi$ steradian solid angle. The outflow is likely launched from the inner accretion disk, within 15-100 gravitational radii of the black hole. The kinetic power of the outflow may be similar to the bolometric luminosity of PDS 456. Such a powerful wind could have a significant effect on the co-evolution of the host galaxy and its supermassive black hole, through feedback. |
spellingShingle | Reeves, J O'Brien, P Braito, V Behar, E Miller, L Turner, T Fabian, A Kaspi, S Mushotzky, R Ward, M A Compton-thick Wind in the High Luminosity Quasar, PDS 456 |
title | A Compton-thick Wind in the High Luminosity Quasar, PDS 456 |
title_full | A Compton-thick Wind in the High Luminosity Quasar, PDS 456 |
title_fullStr | A Compton-thick Wind in the High Luminosity Quasar, PDS 456 |
title_full_unstemmed | A Compton-thick Wind in the High Luminosity Quasar, PDS 456 |
title_short | A Compton-thick Wind in the High Luminosity Quasar, PDS 456 |
title_sort | compton thick wind in the high luminosity quasar pds 456 |
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