The XMM-Newton/HST View of the Obscuring Outflow in the Seyfert Galaxy Mrk 335 Observed at Extremely Low X-Ray Flux

Longinotti, Anna Lia; Kriss, Gerard; Krongold, Yair; Arellano-Cordova, K. Z.; Komossa, S.; Gallo, Luigi; Grupe, Dirk; Mathur, Smita; Parker, Michael L.; Pradhan, Anil; Wilkins, Dan
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 875, Issue 2, article id. 150, 15 pp. (2019).

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4
2019
Number of authors
11
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
32
Refereed citations
29
Description
The Seyfert galaxy Mrk 335 is known for its frequent changes of flux and spectral shape in the X-ray band that occurred during recent years. These variations may be explained by the onset of a wind that previous, noncontemporaneous high-resolution spectroscopy in X-ray and UV bands located at accretion disk scale. A simultaneous new campaign by XMM-Newton and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) caught the source at a historically low flux in the X-ray band. The soft X-ray spectrum is dominated by prominent emission features and by the effect of a strong ionized absorber with an outflow velocity of (5–6) × 103 km s‑1. The broadband spectrum obtained by the EPIC-pn camera reveals the presence of an additional layer of absorption by gas at moderate ionization covering ∼80% of the central source, as well as tantalizing evidence for absorption in the Fe K band outflowing at the same velocity of the soft X-ray absorber. The HST Cosmic Origins Spectrograph spectra confirm the simultaneous presence of broad absorption troughs in C IV, Lyα, Lyβ, and O VI, with velocities of the order of 5000 km s‑1 and covering factors in the range of 20%–30%. Comparison of the ionic column densities and of other outflow parameters in the two bands shows that the X-ray and UV absorbers are likely originated by the same gas. The resulting picture from this latest multiwavelength campaign confirms that Mrk 335 undergoes the effect of a patchy, medium-velocity outflowing gas in a wide range of ionization states that seem to be persistently obscuring the nuclear continuum.