Compton-Thick Active Galactic NucleiPublication overview
The Astrophysical Journal · 2024
Deep Chandra Observations of NGC 5728 · Paper III
ApJ 977, 275 (2024)
![Chandra 0.3-3 keV emission, ALMA CO(2-1) emission, and Hα + [N II] emission trace the multiphase circumnuclear medium of NGC 5728. The bullseye marks the AGN position in each panel.](/images/publications/ngc5728-iii/hero-multiphase-agn-marker-v2.webp)
Scientific summary
Deep Chandra imaging is compared with Hubble imaging, ALMA CO(2-1), and VLT/MUSE and SINFONI spectroscopy to examine how X-ray emission relates to cold molecular gas, dust, warm ionized gas, and the circumnuclear star-forming ring in NGC 5728.
Key results
The soft X-ray bicone is asymmetric, while increased X-ray absorption perpendicular to the bicone is spatially associated with the inner warped CO disk.
The strongest hard X-ray excess in the innermost region is spatially coincident with ALMA CO(2-1) emission and dusty spirals traced by the Hubble V-H color map.
Soft X-ray emission from the circumnuclear star-forming ring is consistent with thermal plasma at kT = 0.44 keV, with an inferred hot-gas mass of 7.9 × 10⁵ M⊙ and a cooling time of approximately 193 Myr.
Connected research series
Three studies use the deep Chandra observations of NGC 5728 to examine the extended X-ray emission, the spatially resolved Fe K complex, and the multiphase circumnuclear medium.
Maps the bicone and cross-cone emission and constrains the contributions of photoionized and thermal plasma.
Resolves extended red and blue Fe K components and examines a possible high-velocity outflow interpretation.
Compares the X-ray emission with cold molecular gas, warm ionized gas, dust, and the circumnuclear star-forming ring.
