RXTE monitoring observations of Markarian 3

Abstract

We present Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, monitoring observations of the Seyfert 2 galaxy Markarian 3 spanning a 200 day period during which time the source flux varied by a factor $\sim 2$ in the 4-20 keV bandpass. In broad agreement with earlier Ginga results, the average spectrum can be represented in terms of a simple spectral model consisting of a very hard power-law continuum ($\Gamma \approx 1.1$) modified below $\sim 6$ keV by a high absorbing column ($N_H\sim 6\times 10^{23}$ \cunits) together with a high equivalent width Fe-K emission feature at 6.4 keV. The abnormally flat spectral index is probably the signature of a strong reflection component and we consider two models incorporating such emission. In the first the reflected signal suffers the same absorption as the intrinsic continuum, whereas in the second the reflection is treated as an unabsorbed spectral component. In the former case, we require a very strong reflection signal ($R<3$) in order to match the data; in addition variability of both the intrinsic power-law and the reflection component is required. The unabsorbed reflection model requires a somewhat higher line-of-sight column density to the nuclear source ($\sim 10^{24}$ \cunits), but in this case the reflected signal remains constant whilst the level of the intrinsic continuum varies. The latter description is consistent with the reflection originating from the illuminated far inner wall of a molecular torus, the nearside of which screens our direct view of the central continuum source.

7 pages, submitted to the MNRAS

References in corpus (4)

• ASCA Observations of Seyfert 1 galaxies: III. The Evidence for Absorption & Emission due to Photoionized Gas
• ASCA observations of type-2 Seyfert galaxies: II. The Importance of X-ray Scattering and Reflection
• ASCA spectroscopy of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC6240: X-ray emission from a starburst and a buried active nucleus
• An RXTE Observation of the Seyfert 1 Galaxy MCG-6-30-15 : X-ray Reflection and the Iron Abundance

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• Physical Conditions in the Narrow-Line Region of Markarian 3. I. Observational Results
• BeppoSAX Observations of the Seyfert-2 Galaxies NGC 7172 and ESO 103-G35
• X-ray observations of the Ultraluminous infrared galaxy IRAS19254-7245 (The Superantennae)
• The X-ray variability history of Markarian 3
• Variable X-ray Absorption in the Seyfert 2 Galaxy Mrk 348
• Monitoring RXTE Observations of Markarian 348: the origin of the column density variations
• RXTE observations of Seyfert-2 galaxies: evidence for spectral variability