Testing physical scenarios for the reflection features of type-1 AGN using XMM-Newton and NuSTAR simultaneous observations

TL;DR

This study systematically analyzes X-ray reflection features in 22 type-1 AGN using XMM-Newton and NuSTAR data, revealing that both neutral and ionized reflectors are needed to explain the spectra, with a preference for hybrid models.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive approach testing multiple reflection models, including hybrid scenarios, to better understand the reflecting media in type-1 AGN.

Findings

67% of sources require reflection components

Most sources favor hybrid reflection models

Both torus and accretion disk reflections are necessary

Abstract

Above $\sim$3 keV, the X-ray spectrum of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) is characterized by the intrinsic continuum and compton reflection features. For type-1 AGN, several regions could contribute to the reflection. In order to investigate the nature of the reflecting medium, we perform a systematic analysis of the reflector using XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations of a sample of 22 type-1 AGN. We create a baseline model which includes Galactic absorption and an intrinsically absorbed power-law plus a reflection model. We test a set of nine reflection models in a sub-sample of five objects. Based on these results, we select three models to be tested on the entire sample, accounting for distinct physical scenarios: neutral/distant reflection, ionized/relativistic reflection, and neutral/distant+ionized/relativistic reflection, namely hybrid model. We find that 18 sources require the reflection component to fit their spectra. Among them, 67$\%$ prefer the hybrid model. Neutral and ionized models are equally preferred by three sources. We conclude that both the neutral/distant reflector most probably associated with the inner edges of the torus and the ionized/relativistic reflector associated with the accretion disk are required to describe the reflection in type-1 AGN.