Abstract
During an intensive Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) UV monitoring campaign of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 performed from 2014 February to July, the normally highly correlated far UV continuum and broad emission line variations decorrelated for ∼60-70 days, starting ∼75 days after the first HST/COS observation. Following this anomalous state, the flux and variability of the broad emission lines returned to a more normal state. This transient behavior, characterized by significant deficits in flux and equivalent width of the strong broad UV emission lines, is the first of its kind to be unambiguously identified in an active galactic nucleus reverberation mapping campaign. The largest corresponding emission line flux deficits occurred for the high ionization, collisionally excited lines C iv and Si iv(+O iv]), and also He ii(+O iii]), while the anomaly in Lywas substantially smaller. This pattern of behavior indicates a depletion in the flux of photons with relative to those near 13.6 eV. We suggest two plausible mechanisms for the observed behavior: (i) temporary obscuration of the ionizing continuum incident upon broad line region (BLR) clouds by a moving veil of material lying between the inner accretion disk and inner (BLR), perhaps resulting from an episodic ejection of material from the disk, or (ii) a temporary change in the intrinsic ionizing continuum spectral energy distribution resulting in a deficit of ionizing photons with energies >54 eV, possibly due to a transient restructuring of the Comptonizing atmosphere above the disk. Current evidence appears to favor the latter explanation.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 11 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
Volume | 824 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 10 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..
Funding
Funders | Funder number |
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National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program | 1302093, 1412315, 1412155, 1412693, 1253702, 1210311 |
National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program | |
Science and Technology Facilities Council | ST/J001651/1 |
Science and Technology Facilities Council |
Keywords
- galaxies: Seyfert Supporting material: animation
- galaxies: active
- galaxies: individual (NGC-5548)
- galaxies: nuclei
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science