Iron K line Variability in the Low-Luminosity AGN NGC 4579

Abstract

We present results of new ASCA observations of the low-luminosity AGN (LLAGN) NGC 4579 obtained on 1998 December 18 and 28, and we report on detection of variability of an iron K emission line. The X-ray luminosities in the 2--10 keV band for the two observations are nearly identical (LX $\approx$ 2$\times 10^{41}$ ergs/s), but they are $\sim$35% larger than that measured in 1995 July by Terashima et al. An Fe K emission line is detected at $6.39\pm 0.09$ keV (source rest frame) which is lower than the line energy $6.73_{-0.12}^{+0.13}$ keV in the 1995 observation. If we fit the Fe lines with a blend of two Gaussians centered at 6.39 keV and 6.73 keV, the intensity of the 6.7 keV line decreases, while the intensity of the 6.4 keV line increases, within an interval of 3.5 yr. This variability rules out thermal plasmas in the host galaxy as the origin of the ionized Fe line in this LLAGN. The detection and variability of the 6.4 keV line indicates that cold matter subtends a large solid angle viewed from the nucleus and that it is located within $\sim 1$ pc from the nucleus. It could be identified with an optically thick standard accretion disk. If this is the case, a standard accretion disk is present at the Eddington ratio of $L_{\mathrm{Bol}}/L_{\mathrm{Eddington}}\sim 2\times 10^{-3}$. A broad disk-line profile is not clearly seen and the structure of the innermost part of accretion disk remains unclear.

9 pages, 3 figures, To appear in the Astrophyscal Jounal Letters

References in corpus (4)

• The Spectral Energy Distributions of Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei
• Possible Evidence for Truncated Thin Disks in the Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei M81 and NGC 4579
• Variation of the broad X-ray iron line in MCG-6-30-15 during a flare
• ASCA Observation of the Low-Luminosity Seyfert 1.5 Galaxy NGC 5033

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