Uncovering the geometry of the hot X-ray corona in the Seyfert galaxy NGC4151 with IXPE

Autor: Gianolli, V. E., Kim, D. E., Bianchi, S., Agís-González, B., Madejski, G., Marin, F., Marinucci, A., Matt, G., Middei, R., Petrucci, P-O., Soffitta, P., Tagliacozzo, D., Tombesi, F., Ursini, F., Barnouin, T., De Rosa, A., Di Gesu, L., Ingram, A., Loktev, V., Panagiotou, C., Podgorny, J., Poutanen, J., Puccetti, S., Ratheesh, A., Veledina, A., Zhang, W., Agudo, I., Antonelli, L. A., Bachetti, M., Baldini, L., Baumgartner, W. H., Bellazzini, R., Bongiorno, S. D., Bonino, R., Brez, A., Bucciantini, N., Capitanio, F., Castellano, S., Cavazzuti, E., Chen, C. -T., Ciprini, S., Costa, E., Del Monte, E., Di Lalla, N., Di Marco, A., Donnarumma, I., Doroshenko, V., Dovčiak, M., Ehlert, S. R., Enoto, T., Evangelista, Y., Fabiani, S., Ferrazzoli, R., García, J. A., Gunji, S., Heyl, J., Iwakiri, W., Jorstad, S. G., Kaaret, P., Karas, V., Kislat, F., Kitaguchi, T., Kolodziejczak, J. J., Krawczynski, H., La Monaca, F., Latronico, L., Liodakis, I., Maldera, S., Manfreda, A., Marscher, A. P., Marshall, H. L., Massaro, F., Mitsuishi, I., Mizuno, T., Muleri, F., Negro, M., Ng, C. -Y., ODell, S. L., Omodei, N., Oppedisano, C., Papitto, A., Pavlov, G. G., Peirson, A. L., Perri, M., Pesce-Rollins, M., Pilia, M., Possenti, A., Ramsey, B. D., Rankin, J., Roberts, O. J., Romani, R. W., Sgrò, C., Slane, P., Spandre, G., Swartz, D. A., Tamagawa, T., Tavecchio, F., Taverna, R., Tawara, Y., Tennant, A. F., Thomas, N. E., Trois, A., Tsygankov, S. S., Turolla, R., Vink, J., Weisskopf, M. C., Wu, K., Xie, F., Zane, S.
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Druh dokumentu: Working Paper
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stad1697
Popis: We present an X-ray spectro-polarimetric analysis of the bright Seyfert galaxy NGC4151. The source has been observed with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) for 700 ks, complemented with simultaneous XMM-Newton (50 ks) and NuSTAR (100 ks) pointings. A polarization degree ${\Pi} = 4.9 {\pm} 1.1 \%$ and angle ${\Psi}= 86{\deg} {\pm} 7{\deg}$ east of north ($68\%$ confidence level) are measured in the 2-8 keV energy range. The spectro-polarimetric analysis shows that the polarization could be entirely due to reflection. Given the low reflection flux in the IXPE band, this requires however a reflection with a very large ($> 38 \%$) polarization degree. Assuming more reasonable values, a polarization degree of the hot corona ranging from ${\sim}4$ to ${\sim}8\%$ is found. The observed polarization degree excludes a spherical lamppost geometry for the corona, suggesting instead a slab-like geometry, possibly a wedge, as determined via Monte Carlo simulations. This is further confirmed by the X-ray polarization angle, which coincides with the direction of the extended radio emission in this source, supposed to match the disc axis. NGC4151 is the first AGN with an X-ray polarization measure for the corona, illustrating the capabilities of X-ray polarimetry and IXPE in unveiling its geometry.
Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures
Databáze: arXiv
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