The Compton-thick quasar at the heart of the high-redshift giant radio galaxy 6C 0905+39

TL;DR

This study reveals that the high-redshift radio galaxy 6C 0905+39 hosts one of the most powerful Compton-thick quasars known, with detailed X-ray spectral analysis confirming its extreme obscuration and luminosity.

Contribution

First detailed X-ray spectral analysis of a high-redshift giant radio galaxy revealing a powerful Compton-thick quasar at its core.

Findings

Contains one of the most powerful high-redshift Compton-thick quasars.

Nucleus has a column density of approximately 3.5 x 10^24 cm^-2.

X-ray luminosity in the 2-10 keV band is about 1.7 x 10^45 erg/s.

Abstract

Our XMM-Newton spectrum of the giant, high-redshift (z=1.88) radio galaxy 6C 0905+39 shows that it contains one of the most powerful, high-redshift, Compton-thick quasars known. Its spectrum is very hard above 2 keV. The steep XMM spectrum below that energy is shown to be due to extended emission from the radio bridge using Chandra data. The nucleus of 6C 0905+39 has a column density of 3.5 (+1.4,-0.4) X 10^24 cm^-2 and absorption-corrected X-ray luminosity of 1.7 (+0.9,-0.1) X 10^45 erg/s in the 2-10 keV band. A lower redshift active galaxy in the same field, SDSS J090808.36+394313.6, may also be Compton-thick.