THE GEOMETRY OF THE INFRARED AND X-RAY OBSCURER IN A DUSTY HYPERLUMINOUS QUASAR
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2016-10-27
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Citation of Original Publication
Farrah, Duncan, Mislav Baloković, Daniel Stern, Kathryn Harris, Michelle Kunimoto, Dominic J. Walton, David M. Alexander, et al. “THE GEOMETRY OF THE INFRARED AND X-RAY OBSCURER IN A DUSTY HYPERLUMINOUS QUASAR.” The Astrophysical Journal 831, no. 1 (October 2016): 76. https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/831/1/76.
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This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
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Abstract
We study the geometry of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) obscurer in IRAS 09104+4109, an IR-luminous, radio-intermediate FR-I source at z = 0.442, using infrared data from Spitzer and Herschel, X-ray data from NuSTAR, Swift, Suzaku, and Chandra, and an optical spectrum from Palomar. The infrared data imply a total rest-frame 1–1000 μm luminosity of 5.5 × 10⁴⁶ erg s⁻¹ and require both an AGN torus and a starburst model. The AGN torus has an anisotropy-corrected IR luminosity of 4.9 × 10⁴⁶ erg s⁻¹ and a viewing angle and half-opening angle both of approximately 36° from pole-on. The starburst has a star formation rate of (110 ± 34) M⊙ yr⁻¹ and an age of <50 Myr. These results are consistent with two epochs of luminous activity in IRAS 09104+4109: one approximately 150 Myr ago, and one ongoing. The X-ray data suggest a photon index of Γ ≃ 1.8 and a line-of-sight column density of Nₕ ≃ 5 × 10²³ cm⁻². This argues against a reflection-dominated hard X-ray spectrum, which would have implied a much higher Nₕ and luminosity. The X-ray and infrared data are consistent with a bolometric AGN luminosity of L₆ₒₗ ∼ (0.5–2.5) × 10⁴⁷ erg s⁻¹. The X-ray and infrared data are further consistent with coaligned AGN obscurers in which the line of sight "skims" the torus. This is also consistent with the optical spectra, which show both coronal iron lines and broad lines in polarized but not direct light. Combining constraints from the X-ray, optical, and infrared data suggest that the AGN obscurer is within a vertical height of 20 pc, and a radius of 125 pc, of the nucleus.