A Rapid and Large-Amplitude X-ray Dimming Event in a z ~ 2.6 Radio-Quiet Quasar

TL;DR

This paper reports a rare, rapid, and large-amplitude X-ray dimming event in a high-redshift radio-quiet quasar, likely caused by a fast-moving absorber crossing the line of sight, indicating powerful accretion disk winds.

Contribution

It presents the first observation of such a rapid X-ray dimming in a luminous quasar with a supermassive black hole, suggesting the presence of high-velocity disk winds.

Findings

X-ray flux dropped by a factor of 7.6 within two days

Spectral hardening observed during the dimming event

Absorber velocity estimated at approximately 0.9c

Abstract

We report a dramatic fast X-ray dimming event in a z=2.627 radio-quiet type 1 quasar, which has an estimated supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass of $6.3\times 10^{9} M_\odot$. In the high X-ray state, it showed a typical level of X-ray emission relative to its UV/optical emission. Then its 0.5-2 keV (rest-frame 1.8-7.3 keV) flux dropped by a factor of $\approx7.6$ within two rest-frame days. The dimming is associated with spectral hardening, as the 2-7 keV (rest-frame 7.3-25.4 keV) flux dropped by only $17\%$ and the effective power-law photon index of the X-ray spectrum changed from $\approx2.3$ to $\approx0.9$. The quasar has an infrared (IR)-to-UV spectral energy distribution and a rest-frame UV spectrum similar to those of typical quasars, and it does not show any significant long-term variability in the IR and UV/optical bands. Such an extremely fast and large-amplitude X-ray variability event has not been reported before in luminous quasars with such massive SMBHs. The X-ray dimming is best explained by a fast-moving absorber crossing the line of sight and fully covering the X-ray emitting corona. Adopting a conservatively small size of $5 {G} M_{\rm BH}/c^2$ for the X-ray corona, the transverse velocity of the absorber is estimated to be $\approx 0.9c$. The quasar is likely accreting with a high or even super-Eddington accretion rate, and the high-velocity X-ray absorber is probably related to a powerful accretion-disk wind. Such an energetic wind may eventually evolve into a massive galactic-scale outflow, providing efficient feedback to the host galaxy.