TY - JOUR
T1 - The XMM-Newton view of the nucleus of NGC 4261
AU - Sambruna, R. M.
AU - Gliozzi, M.
AU - Eracleous, M.
AU - Brandt, W. N.
AU - Mushotzky, R.
N1 - Funding Information:
Financial support from NASA Long Term Astrophysics Program grants NAG5-10708 (M. G. and R. M. S.), NAG5-8107 (W. N. B.), and NAG5-9982 (M. E.) is gratefully acknowledged. Funds were also provided by NASA grant NAG5-10243 (M. G. and R. M. S.) and by the Clare Boothe Luce Program of the Henry Luce Foundation (R. M. S.).
PY - 2003/3/20
Y1 - 2003/3/20
N2 - We present the first results from an XMM-Newton observation of the Fanaroff-Riley type I galaxy NGC 4261, which harbors a supermassive black hole and a low-ionization nuclear emission-line region. Here we focus on the X-ray properties of the nucleus, using the European Photon Imaging Camera pn data, The 0.6-10 keV continuum in best fitted by a thermal component with kT ∼ 0.7 keV, plus a power law with photon index Γ ∼ 1.4, absorbed by a column density NH ∼ 4 × 1022 cm-2. An unresolved Fe K emission line with EW ∼ 280 eV is detected at ∼7 keV. We also detect, for the first time, short-term flux variability from the nucleus, on a timescale of 3-5 ks. The short-term variations rule out an advection-dominated accretion flow as the only production mechanism of the X-ray continuum. Instead, we argue that the inner jet contributes to the emission in the X-ray band.
AB - We present the first results from an XMM-Newton observation of the Fanaroff-Riley type I galaxy NGC 4261, which harbors a supermassive black hole and a low-ionization nuclear emission-line region. Here we focus on the X-ray properties of the nucleus, using the European Photon Imaging Camera pn data, The 0.6-10 keV continuum in best fitted by a thermal component with kT ∼ 0.7 keV, plus a power law with photon index Γ ∼ 1.4, absorbed by a column density NH ∼ 4 × 1022 cm-2. An unresolved Fe K emission line with EW ∼ 280 eV is detected at ∼7 keV. We also detect, for the first time, short-term flux variability from the nucleus, on a timescale of 3-5 ks. The short-term variations rule out an advection-dominated accretion flow as the only production mechanism of the X-ray continuum. Instead, we argue that the inner jet contributes to the emission in the X-ray band.
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U2 - 10.1086/374612
DO - 10.1086/374612
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0041633729
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 586
SP - L37-L40
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 1 II
ER -