(NuSTARNuSTAR) resolves the first dual AGN above 10 keV in SWIFT J2028.5+2543
- Institute for Astronomy, Department of Physics, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, CH-8093 Zurich (Switzerland)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)
- Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Mail Stop 169-221, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
- Núcleo de Astronomía de la Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Diego Portales, Av. Ejército 441, Santiago (Chile)
- Instituto de Astrofísica, Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 306, Santiago 22 (Chile)
- Center for Relativistic Astrophysics, School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332 (United States)
- Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061 (United States)
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ (United Kingdom)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
- Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
- INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, I-40127 Bologna (Italy)
We have discovered heavy obscuration in the dual active galactic nucleus (AGN) in the Swift/Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) source SWIFT J2028.5+2543 using Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). While an early XMM-Newton study suggested the emission was mainly from NGC 6921, the superior spatial resolution of NuSTAR above 10 keV resolves the Swift/BAT emission into two sources associated with the nearby galaxies MCG +04-48-002 and NGC 6921 (z = 0.014) with a projected separation of 25.3 kpc (91″). NuSTAR's sensitivity above 10 keV finds both are heavily obscured to Compton-thick levels (N {sub H} ≈ (1–2) × 10{sup 24} cm{sup −2}) and contribute equally to the BAT detection (L{sub 10−50 keV}{sup int} ≈ 6 × 10{sup 42} erg s{sup −1}). The observed luminosity of both sources is severely diminished in the 2–10 keV band (L{sub 2−10 keV}{sup obs}<0.1×L{sub 2−10 keV}{sup int}), illustrating the importance of >10 keV surveys like those with NuSTAR and Swift/BAT. Compared to archival X-ray data, MCG +04-48-002 shows significant variability (>3) between observations. Despite being bright X-ray AGNs, they are difficult to detect using optical emission-line diagnostics because MCG +04-48-002 is identified as a starburst/composite because of the high rates of star formation from a luminous infrared galaxy while NGC 6921 is only classified as a LINER using line detection limits. SWIFT J2028.5+2543 is the first dual AGN resolved above 10 keV and is the second most heavily obscured dual AGN discovered to date in the X-rays other than NGC 6240.
- OSTI ID:
- 22869029
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 824, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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