The Host Galaxy and Central Engine of the Dwarf AGN POX 52
C. E. Thornton (UC Irvine), A. J. Barth (UC Irvine), L. C. Ho, (Carnegie Observatories), R. E. Rutledge (McGill), J. E. Greene (Princeton)

TL;DR
This study provides detailed multi-wavelength observations of the dwarf Seyfert 1 galaxy POX 52, revealing its host galaxy's morphology, the active nucleus's properties, and a refined estimate of its central black hole's mass, contributing to understanding low-mass AGN.
Contribution
It offers new high-resolution imaging, X-ray variability analysis, and black hole mass estimates for POX 52, enhancing knowledge of dwarf AGN characteristics and their central engines.
Findings
Host galaxy is a dwarf elliptical with no spiral features.
X-ray variability indicates a dynamic partial covering absorber.
Black hole mass estimated between 2.2 and 4.2 million solar masses.
Abstract
We present new multi-wavelength observations of the dwarf Seyfert 1 galaxy POX 52 in order to investigate the properties of the host galaxy and the active nucleus, and to examine the mass of its black hole, previously estimated to be ~ 10^5 M_sun. Hubble Space Telescope ACS/HRC images show that the host galaxy has a dwarf elliptical morphology (M_I = -18.4 mag, Sersic index n = 4.3) with no detected disk component or spiral structure, confirming previous results from ground-based imaging. X-ray observations from both Chandra and XMM show strong (factor of 2) variability over timescales as short as 500 s, as well as a dramatic decrease in the absorbing column density over a 9 month period. We attribute this change to a partial covering absorber, with a 94% covering fraction and N_H = 58^{+8.4}_{-9.2} * 10^21 cm^-2, that moved out of the line of sight in between the XMM and Chandra…
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