LONG-TERM X-RAY STABILITY AND ULTRAVIOLET VARIABILITY OF THE IONIZED ABSORPTION IN NGC 3783

Journal Article · Sat Dec 20 04:00:00 EST 2014 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/797/2/105· OSTI ID:22364823

Scott, A. E.; Brandt, W. N. ^[1]; Behar, E.; Kaspi, S. ^[2]; Crenshaw, D. M. ^[3]; Gabel, J. R. ^[4]; Gibson, R. R. ^[5]; Kraemer, S. B. ^[6]

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1. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 525 Davey Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, Technion, Haifa 32000 (Israel)
3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University, 25 Park Place, Suite 605, Atlanta, GA 30303 (United States)
4. Physics Department, Creighton University, Omaha, NE 68178 (United States)
5. Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States)
6. Institute for Astrophysics and Computational Sciences, Department of Physics, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20064 (United States)

We present the results of recent Chandra High-Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer and Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph observations of the nearby Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 3783, which show a strong, nonvarying X-ray warm absorber and physically related and kinematically varying UV absorption. We compare our new observations to high-resolution, high signal-to-noise archival data from 2001, allowing a unique investigation into the long-term variations of the absorption over a 12 yr period. We find no statistically significant changes in the physical properties of the X-ray absorber, but there is a significant drop of ∼40% in the UV and X-ray flux and a significant flattening of the underlying X-ray power-law slope. Large kinematic changes are seen in the UV absorbers, possibly due to radial deceleration of the material. Similar behavior is not observed in the X-ray data, likely due to its lower-velocity resolution, which shows an outflow velocity of v {sub out} ∼ –655 km s{sup –1} in both epochs. The narrow iron Kα emission line at 6.4 keV shows no variation between epochs, and its measured width places the material producing the line at a radial distance of ∼0.03 pc from the central black hole.

• OSTI ID: 22364823
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 797; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ABSORPTION
ACCELERATION
BLACK HOLES
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
IRON
KEV RANGE
NOISE
ORIGIN
RESOLUTION
SEYFERT GALAXIES
SPACE
STAR CLUSTERS
TELESCOPES
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
VARIATIONS
X RADIATION
X-RAY GALAXIES