A Long Look At MCG-5-23-16 With NuSTAR: I- Relativistic Reflection And Coronal Properties

Abstract

MCG-5-23-16 was targeted in early 2015 with a half mega-seconds observing campaign using NuSTAR. Here we present the spectral analysis of these datasets along with an earlier observation and study the relativistic reflection and the primary coronal source. The data show strong reflection features in the form of both narrow and broad iron lines plus a Compton reflection hump. A cutoff energy is significantly detected in all exposures. The shape of the reflection spectrum does not change in the two years spanned by the observations, suggesting a stable geometry. A strong positive correlation is found between the cutoff energy and both the hard X-ray flux and spectral index. The measurements imply that the coronal plasma is not at the runaway electron-positron pair limit, and instead contains mostly electrons. The observed variability in the coronal properties is driven by a variable optical depth. A constant heating to cooling ratio is measured implying that there is a feedback mechanism in which a significant fraction of the photons cooling the corona are due to reprocessed hard X-rays.

Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (16)

• The synthesis of the cosmic X-ray background in the Chandra and XMM-Newton era
• Toward the Standard Population Synthesis Model of the X-Ray Background: Evolution of X-Ray Luminosity and Absorption Functions of Active Galactic Nuclei Including Compton-Thick Populations
• An XMM-Newton survey of broad iron lines in Seyfert galaxies
• The Fundamental Plane of Accretion Onto Black Holes with Dynamical Masses
• Correlation between the photon index and X-ray luminosity of black hole X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei: observations and interpretation
• The NuSTAR spectrum of Mrk 335: Extreme relativistic effects within 2 gravitational radii of the event horizon?
• The broad band spectral variability of MCG-6-30-15 observed by NuSTAR and XMM-Newton
• The Broad-band X-ray Spectrum of IC 4329A from a Joint NuSTAR/Suzaku Observation
• The variable hard X-ray emission of NGC4945 as observed by NuSTAR
• Radio Variability in Seyfert Nuclei
• The hard X-ray spectrum of NGC 5506 as seen by NuSTAR
• Coronal Properties of the Seyfert 1.9 Galaxy MCG -05-23-016 Determined from Hard X-ray Spectroscopy with NuSTAR
• Observations of MCG-5-23-16 with Suzaku, XMM-Newton and NuSTAR: Disk tomography and Compton hump reverberation
• NuSTAR Reveals the Comptonizing Corona of the Broad-Line Radio Galaxy 3C 382
• Anatomy of the AGN in NGC 5548: III. The high-energy view with NuSTAR and INTEGRAL
• The Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 2110: hard X-ray emission observed by NuSTAR and variability of the iron K$\alpha$ line

Cited by in corpus (22)

• Galaxy Formation and Reionization: Key Unknowns and Expected Breakthroughs by the James Webb Space Telescope
• NuSTAR Survey of Obscured Swift/BAT-selected Active Galactic Nuclei: II. Median High-energy Cutoff in Seyfert II Hard X-ray Spectra
• Polarization constraints on the X-ray corona in Seyfert Galaxies: MCG-05-23-16
• Systematic Study of AGN Clumpy Tori with Broadband X-ray Spectroscopy: Updated Unified Picture of AGN Structure
• The variable and non-variable X-ray absorbers in Compton-thin type-II Active Galactic Nuclei
• Prospects for differentiating extended coronal geometries in AGNs with the IXPE mission
• The Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS). (IV): Exploring Ionized Gas Outflows in Central Kiloparsec Regions of GATOS Seyferts
• Reflection geometries in absorbed and unabsorbed AGN
• NuSTAR view of Swift/BAT AGN: The $R$-$\Gamma$ correlation
• Study of X-ray variability and coronae of Seyfert galaxies using NuSTAR
• Distinct High Energy Cutoff Variation Patterns in Two Seyfert Galaxies
• Detection of the high energy cut-off from the Seyfert 1.5 galaxy NGC 5273
• A Hard Look At Relativistic Reverberation in MCG-5-23-16 & SWIFT J2127.4+5654: Testing the Lamp-Post Model
• Search for coronal temperature variation in Seyfert galaxies
• X-ray reverberation lags from the 1.5 Seyfert galaxy NGC 5273
• X-ray spectral and timing analysis of the Compton Thick Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068
• NuSTAR spectral analysis of three Seyfert galaxies: NGC 3227, NGC 5548 and MR 2251$-$178
• Time resolved spectroscopy of a GRS 1915+105 flare during its unusual low state using AstroSat
• Detection of Asymmetry in the Narrow Fe K$\alpha$ Emission Line in MCG-5-23-16 with Chandra
• Spectro-polarimetric study to constrain accretion-ejection properties of MCG-5-23-16 using IXPE and NuSTAR observations
• The ALMA View of High-Redshift Galaxy Formation
• Evidence for coronal temperature variation in Seyfert 2 ESO 103--035 using NuSTAR observations