Mapping the circumnuclear matter of NGC1068 in X-rays

Abstract

An-energy dependent variation of the X-ray emission from the archetypical "Compton-thick'' Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC1068 has been observed between two BeppoSAX observations, performed one year apart. This variation (at the 2.6 sigma level) is highest in the 3--10 keV band and declines towards lower and higher energies. The most straightforward explanation is a variation of the primary nuclear continuum, which is scattered along our line of sight by an electron plasma. If this is indeed the case, this evidence allows us to obtain the first direct estimate of the location of the scattering medium, at ~1 pc from the nucleus.

12 Latex pages, 1 figure, Accepted for publication in New Astronomy, style files "elsart.sty, elsart12.sty" and "elsart.cls" included

References in corpus (2)

• Steps toward Determination of the Size and Structure of the Broad-Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei. XII. Ground-Based Monitoring of 3C 390.3
• Soft X-ray spectroscopy of Compton-thick Seyfert 2 galaxies with BeppoSAX

Cited by in corpus (9)

• A New Diagnostic of Active Galactic Nuclei: Revealing Highly-Absorbed Systems at Redshift>0.3
• NuSTAR Spectroscopy of Multi-Component X-ray Reflection from NGC 1068
• NuSTAR catches the unveiling nucleus of NGC 1068
• The high energy emission line spectrum of NGC 1068
• The formerly X-ray reflection-dominated Seyfert~2 galaxy NGC6300
• The X-ray Reflectors in the Nucleus of the Seyfert Galaxy NGC 1068
• On the nature of X-ray absorption in Seyfert 2 galaxies
• AGN torus detectability at sub-millimeter wavelengths: What to expect from ALMA continuum data
• The Suzaku X-ray spectrum of NGC 3147. Further insights on the best "true" Seyfert 2 galaxy candidate