Bibcode
Farrah, D.; Baloković, Mislav; Stern, Daniel; Harris, K.; Kunimoto, Michelle; Walton, Dominic J.; Alexander, David M.; Arévalo, Patricia; Ballantyne, David R.; Bauer, Franz E.; Boggs, Steven; Brandt, William N.; Brightman, Murray; Christensen, Finn; Clements, David L.; Craig, William; Fabian, Andrew; Hailey, Charles; Harrison, Fiona; Koss, Michael; Lansbury, George B.; Luo, Bin; Paine, Jennie; Petty, Sara; Pitchford, Kate; Ricci, Claudio; Zhang, William
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 831, Issue 1, article id. 76, 14 pp. (2016).
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2016
Journal
Citations
19
Refereed citations
19
Description
We study the geometry of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) obscurer in
IRAS 09104+4109, an IR-luminous, radio-intermediate FR-I source at z =
0.442, using infrared data from Spitzer and Herschel, X-ray data from
NuSTAR, Swift, Suzaku, and Chandra, and an optical spectrum from
Palomar. The infrared data imply a total rest-frame 1–1000 μm
luminosity of 5.5 × 1046 erg s‑1 and
require both an AGN torus and a starburst model. The AGN torus has an
anisotropy-corrected IR luminosity of 4.9 × 1046 erg
s‑1 and a viewing angle and half-opening angle both of
approximately 36° from pole-on. The starburst has a star formation
rate of (110 ± 34) M ⊙ yr‑1 and
an age of <50 Myr. These results are consistent with two epochs of
luminous activity in IRAS 09104+4109: one approximately 150 Myr ago, and
one ongoing. The X-ray data suggest a photon index of Γ ≃ 1.8
and a line-of-sight column density of N H ≃ 5 ×
1023 cm‑2. This argues against a
reflection-dominated hard X-ray spectrum, which would have implied a
much higher N H and luminosity. The X-ray and infrared data
are consistent with a bolometric AGN luminosity of L bol
∼ (0.5–2.5) × 1047 erg s‑1.
The X-ray and infrared data are further consistent with coaligned AGN
obscurers in which the line of sight “skims” the torus. This
is also consistent with the optical spectra, which show both coronal
iron lines and broad lines in polarized but not direct light. Combining
constraints from the X-ray, optical, and infrared data suggest that the
AGN obscurer is within a vertical height of 20 pc, and a radius of 125
pc, of the nucleus.