English

Variable X-ray reflection from 1H~0419--577

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2015-06-16 v1

Abstract

We present detailed broadband X-ray spectral variability of a Seyfert 1 galaxy 1H~0419--577 based on an archival \suzaku{} observation in July 2007, a new \suzaku{} observation performed in January 2010 and the two latest \xmm{} observations from May 2010. All the observations show soft X-ray excess emission below 2\kev2\kev and both \suzaku{} observations show a hard X-ray excess emission above 10\kev10\kev when compared to a power-law. We have tested three physical models -- a complex partial covering absorption model, a blurred reflection model and an intrinsic disk Comptonization model. Among these three models, the blurred reflection model provided statistically the best-fit to all the four observations. Irrespective of the models used, the soft X-ray excess emission requires contribution from a thermal component similar to that expected from an accretion disk. The partial covering absorption model results in a nonphysical high temperature (kTin100\evkT_{in} \sim 100\ev) for an accretion disk and is also statistically the worst fit among the three models. 1H~0419--577 showed remarkable X-ray spectral variability. The soft X-ray excess and the power-law both became weaker in January 2010 as well as in May 2010. A moderately broad iron line, detected in July 2007, is absent in the January 2010 observation. Correlated variability of the soft X-ray excess and the iron KαK\alpha line strongly suggest reflection origin for both the components. However, such spectral variability cannot be explained by the light bending model alone and requires changes in the accretion disk/corona geometry possibly arising from changes in the accretion rate.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1307.6223,
  title  = {Variable X-ray reflection from 1H~0419--577},
  author = {Main Pal and Gulab C. Dewangan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.6223},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

accepted for publication in MNRAS, 13 pages including 7 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T00:56:39.361Z