Rapidly variable Fe K$\alpha$ line in NGC 4051

J. X. Wang; Y. Y. Zhou; H. G. Xu; T. G. Wang

doi:10.1086/312004

Rapidly variable Fe K$\alpha$ line in NGC 4051

Astrophysics 2009-10-31 v1

Authors: J. X. Wang , Y. Y. Zhou , H. G. Xu , T. G. Wang

View on arXiv ↗ PDF ↗ DOI ↗

Abstract

We present a detailed analysis on the variability of the Fe K emission line in NGC 4051 using ASCA data. Through simple Gaussian line fits, we find not only obvious Fe K line variability with no significant difference in the X-ray continuum flux between two ASCA observations which were separated by $\sim$ 440 days, but also rapid variability of Fe K line on time scales $\sim 10^4$ s within the second observation. During the second observation, the line is strong (EW = 733 $^{+206}_{-219}$ eV) and broad ( $\sigma = 0.96^{+0.49}_{-0.35}$ keV) when the source is brightest, and become weaker (EW = 165 $^{+87}_{-86}$ eV) and narrower ( $\sigma<0.09$ keV) whilst the source is weakest. The equivalent width of Fe K line correlates positively with the continuum flux, which shows an opposite trend with another Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG --6-30-15.

Keywords

seyfert galaxies and agn emission line spectroscopy stellar outbursts and variable stars

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9904321,
  title  = {Rapidly variable Fe K$\alpha$ line in NGC 4051},
  author = {J. X. Wang and Y. Y. Zhou and H. G. Xu and T. G. Wang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9904321},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

12 pages with 5 figures, to appear in ApJ Vol. 516, L65

Rapidly variable Fe K$\alpha$ line in NGC 4051

Abstract

Keywords

Cite

Comments

Related papers