Ejection–accretion connection in NLS1 AGN 1H 1934-063

Abstract

Accretion and ejection of matter in active galactic nuclei (AGN) are tightly connected phenomena and represent fundamental mechanisms regulating the growth of the central supermassive black hole and the evolution of the host galaxy. However, the exact physical processes involved are not yet fully understood. We present a high-resolution spectral analysis of a simultaneous XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observation of the narrow line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) AGN 1H 1934-063, during which the X-ray flux dropped by a factor of ∼6 and subsequently recovered within 140 kiloseconds. By means of the time-resolved and flux-resolved X-ray spectroscopy, we discover a potentially variable warm absorber and a relatively stable ultra-fast outflow (UFO, vUFO ∼ −0.075 c) with a mild ionization state (log (ξ/erg cm s−1) ∼ 1.6). The detected emission lines (especially a strong and broad feature around 1 keV) are of unknown origin and cannot be explained with emission from plasmas in photo- or collisional-ionization equilibrium. Such emission lines could be well described by a strongly blueshifted (z ∼ −0.3) secondary reflection off the base of the equatorial outflows, which may reveal the link between the reprocessing of the inner accretion flow photons and the ejection. However, this scenario although being very promising is only tentative and will be tested with future observations.

X-Ray Reverberation Mapping of Ark 564 Using Gaussian Process Regression

“…While the Gaussian is phenomenological, similar features have been seen in other high-Eddington accretors, such as the NLS1 1H 1934-063 (Xu et al 2022) and the extreme changinglook AGN 1ES 1927+654 (Masterson et al 2022). We discuss further the potential physical origin of the feature near 1 keV in Section 6.…”

“…Unidentified broad features around 1 keV have been seen in CCD spectra of several high-Eddington accretors. For instance, the 1 keV feature looks very similar to that detected in the NLS1 AGN 1H 1934-063 by Xu et al (2022), the extreme changing-look AGN 1ES 1927+654 by Masterson et al (2022), as well as several ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), especially those in the supersoft ultraluminous subclass of ULXs (e.g., NGC 247, NGC 6946, M1, and M101: Urquhart & Soria 2016;Earnshaw & Roberts 2017;Pinto et al 2021, respectively). Proposed solutions in these cases have included blueshifted O VIII ionization edges, or high-ionization Fe L or Ne IX-X absorption lines with velocities of ∼0.1-0.2c indicative of an optically thick wind (Pinto et al 2021).…”

Evolution of a Relativistic Outflow and X-Ray Corona in the Extreme Changing-look AGN 1ES 1927+654

“…In Section 5.1, we discuss further the implications of this modeling and suggest that this could be reprocessed emission off of a geometrically thick accretion disk from a super-Eddington accretion flow. Another similar scenario has been invoked for the emission lines in the high-resolution XMM-Newton RGS spectrum of the rapidly accreting AGN 1H 1934-063 by Xu et al (2022).…”

“…1 keV features have been seen in other highly accreting compact objects, including ULXs, neutron star X-ray binaries, and high-Eddington AGN, and have been successfully modeled with a variety of radiative processes, including collisionally ionized emission, photoionized emission, and soft reflection (e.g., Pinto et al 2021;Ludlam et al 2022;Xu et al 2022). We therefore conclude that our reflection-based modeling with xillverTDE is an accurate description of the data, but ultimately may not be unique.…”

“…This could suggest that blackbody reflection is a key component of many super-Eddington accretors and super-soft X-ray sources where the thermal component dominates the X-ray continuum. Likewise, a similar scenario of soft reflection at the base of a wind has been invoked to explain emission features in the narrow line Seyfert 1 1H 1934-063, which is accreting near or above the Eddington limit (Xu et al 2022). In addition to rapidly accreting AGN, TDEs in low mass supermassive black holes (M 10 7 M ) are known to have super-Eddington fall-back rates and very soft, thermal X-ray spectra, making them a perfect probe of this model.…”