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The soft X-ray polarization in obscured AGN
- Publication Year :
- 2009
-
Abstract
- The soft X-ray emission in obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) is dominated by emission lines, produced in a gas photoionized by the nuclear continuum and likely spatially coincident with the optical narrow line region (NLR). However, a fraction of the observed soft X-ray flux appears like a featureless power law continuum. If the continuum underlying the soft X-ray emission lines is due to Thomson scattering of the nuclear radiation, it should be very highly polarized. We calculated the expected amount of polarization assuming a simple conical geometry for the NLR, combining these results with the observed fraction of the reflected continuum in bright obscured AGN.<br />6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in 'X-ray Polarimetry: A New Window in Astrophysics', edited by R. Bellazzini, E. Costa, G. Matt and G. Tagliaferri
- Subjects :
- High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
FOS: Physical sciences
Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....8af4133cbbf123c21f51fa64e4baa22f