The nature of the ASCA/INTEGRAL source AX J183039-1002: a new Compton-thick AGN?

de Rosa, A.; Bird, A. J.; Ubertini, P.; McBride, V. A.; Landi, R.; Bassani, L.; Dean, A. J.; Campana, R.; Green, D. A.

Italy, United Kingdom

Abstract

We report on the identification of the X/soft γ-ray source AX J183039-1002 detected with ASCA and INTEGRAL/IBIS. The source, which has an observed 20-100 keV flux of ~8.6 × 10-11 erg cm-2 s-1, is inside a diffuse radio supernova remnant (SNR) and is spatially coincident with a compact radio source. We analysed archival Chandra and XMM-Newton observations in order to identify the ASCA/INTEGRAL source. A point-like Chandra X-ray object was found to be positionally coincident with the compact radio source and within the error circle of the ASCA and INTEGRAL sources. Although the association of a compact radio/X-ray source with a radio SNR could be indicative of a pulsar wind nebula (PWN), the XMM-Newton X-ray spectrum is compatible with an absorbed, Seyfert-2 like active galactic nucleus, since it provides evidence for an iron emission line of ~1 keV equivalent width; furthermore the X-ray source spectrum is similar to that of other Compton thick AGN where the <~2 keV data are associated to a warm reflector and the >~10 keV one to a cold reflector.

2009 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
XMM-Newton INTEGRAL 8