NuSTAR Non-detection of a Faint Active Galactic Nucleus in an Ultraluminous IR Galaxy with Kpc-scale Fast Wind [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2011.06914


Large-scale outflows are generally considered as a possible evidence that active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can severely affect their host galaxies. Recently an ultraluminous IR galaxy (ULIRG) at $z=0.49$, AKARI J0916248+073034, was found to have a galaxy-scale [OIII] $\lambda$5007 outflow with one of the highest energy-ejection rates at $z<1.6$. However, the central AGN activity estimated from its torus mid-IR (MIR) radiation is weak relative to the luminous [OIII] emission. In this work we report the first NuSTAR hard X-ray follow-up of this ULIRG to constrain its current AGN luminosity. The intrinsic 2-10 keV luminosity shows a 90% upper-limit of $3.0\times10^{43}$ erg s$^{-1}$ assuming Compton-thick obscuration ($N_{\rm H}=1.5\times10^{24}$ cm$^{-2}$), which is only 3.6% of the luminosity expected from the extinction corrected [OIII] luminosity. With the NuSTAR observation, we succeed to identify that this ULIRG has a most extreme case of X-ray deficit among local ULIRGs. A possible scenario to explain the drastic declining in both of the corona (X-ray) and torus (MIR) is that the primary radiation from the AGN accretion disk is currently in a fading status, as a consequence of a powerful nuclear wind suggested by its powerful ionized outflow in the galaxy scale.

Read this paper on arXiv…

X. Chen, K. Ichikawa, H. Noda, et. al.
Mon, 16 Nov 20
27/57

Comments: 8 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters