Ultraviolet/X-ray variability and the extended X-ray emission of the radio-loud broad absorption line quasar PG 1004+130

TL;DR

This study presents a comprehensive multi-epoch analysis of the radio-loud BAL quasar PG 1004+130, revealing stable X-ray absorption, significant UV BAL variability, and extended X-ray emission associated with the jet and diffuse regions.

Contribution

It provides the most detailed multi-epoch spectral monitoring of a RL BAL quasar, highlighting the nature of X-ray absorption and jet-related X-ray features with new deep observations.

Findings

X-ray absorber properties are stable over time.

UV CIV BAL shows strong variability over years.

Detection of a synchrotron-origin X-ray knot in the jet.

Abstract

We present the results of recent Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Hubble Space Telescope observations of the radio-loud (RL), broad absorption line (BAL) quasar PG 1004+130. We compare our new observations to archival X-ray and UV data, creating the most comprehensive, high signal-to-noise, multi-epoch, spectral monitoring campaign of a RL BAL quasar to date. We probe for variability of the X-ray absorption, the UV BAL, and the X-ray jet, on month-year timescales. The X-ray absorber has a low column density of $N_{H}=8\times10^{20}-4\times10^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$ when it is assumed to be fully covering the X-ray emitting region, and its properties do not vary significantly between the 4 observations. This suggests the observed absorption is not related to the typical "shielding gas" commonly invoked in BAL quasar models, but is likely due to material further from the central black hole. In contrast, the CIV BAL shows strong variability. The equivalent width (EW) in 2014 is EW=11.24$\pm$0.56 \AA, showing a fractional increase of $\Delta EW / \langle EW \rangle$=1.16$\pm$0.11 from the 2003 observation, 3183 days earlier in the rest-frame. This places PG 1004+130 among the most highly variable BAL quasars. By combining Chandra observations we create an exposure 2.5 times deeper than studied previously, with which to investigate the nature of the X-ray jet and extended diffuse X-ray emission. An X-ray knot, likely with a synchrotron origin, is detected in the radio jet ~8 arcsec (30 kpc) from the central X-ray source with a spatial extent of ~4 arcsec (15 kpc). No similar X-ray counterpart to the counterjet is detected. Asymmetric, non-thermal diffuse X-ray emission, likely due to inverse Compton scattering of Cosmic Microwave Background photons, is also detected.