arXiv subjects

Tathagata Saha

Publications and source records attributed to Tathagata Saha.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

eRASSU J043115.8-711730 :the first pulsating symbiotic super-soft X-ray source in the Magellanic Bridge

The Magellanic Bridge stellar population is a relic of the tidal interaction between the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. A comprehensive view of the evolution of the Bridge stellar population requires probing the compact remnants of stellar evolution, otherwise hidden at optical wavelengths. The all-sky survey conducted by the eROSITA instrument on-board the Spectrum Roentgen Gamma observatory has discovered a significant population of compact-object-powered systems in the Bridge using X-ray. The candidate super-soft source eRASSU J043115.8-711730 (hereafter J0431-71) was discovered as a part of this campaign, and we present here a deeper study of this source using XMM-Newton and SALT spectroscopy, long-term optical-infrared photometry using OGLE, ATLAS, ASAS-SN, WISE, and GAIA data. J0431-71 is a highly variable super-soft X-ray source, classified as a red giant with the GAIA color-magnitude diagram. The source exhibits: (a) a thermal X-ray spectrum with a temperature of kT$\sim$30 eV and a bright state luminosity of $3.2\times10^{37}$~erg~s$^{-1}$ in the 0.15-1 keV band, (b) Balmer emission lines, [Fe X] coronal line, HeII emission, and the Bowen fluorescence blend, (c) an optical and infrared periodicity of $\sim$500-560 days in phase with the X-ray-UV emission, (d) a 'redder-when-brighter' trend in the stellar emission with a $\sim$520 day period indicating a pulsating donor star. We argue that the observed spectral and temporal properties in J0431-71 are consistent with a high-accretion rate onto a white-dwarf via Roche-lobe overflow, making J0431-71 the first symbiotic source discovered in the Bridge.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

A Changing-Look Seyfert Discovered by eROSITA Reveals a Two-Component Broad-Line Region

Extreme sudden changes in the flow of accreting gas onto SMBHs manifest themselves via large-amplitude continuum variability and changes to broad Balmer emission profiles, driving changing-look AGN. X-ray flux monitoring with SRG/eROSITA revealed that in the Seyfert AGN HE 1237-2252 the soft X-ray flux dipped abruptly, by a factor of 17 within 18 months. We initiated a follow-up campaign that caught the luminosity recovery after the dip, and enabled us to study how the various accretion components responded during this flux recovery. Our campaign included multiband photometry, X-ray spectroscopy, and optical spectroscopy. We tracked as the accretion rate relative to Eddington increased by a factor of 7 in 3 years. Based on broad Hbeta variability, HE 1237-2252 was subtype 1.0-1.2 in 2002, transitioned to subtype 1.8 by the time of the luminosity dip, and then transitioned back to subtype 1.0 within 3 months as luminosity recovered. Both transitions saw broad Hbeta integrated line flux change by factors of 4-6. The broad Balmer profile is decomposed into a broad Gaussian consistent with virialized gas at 27+/-3 lt-dy, plus a double-peaked profile, consistent with a diskline structure at more than roughly 5 lt-dy. The diskline component's relative contribution to the total profile increases as continuum flux rises. The lack of obscuration in the X-ray spectra, as well as the IR continuum dip, point to an intrinsic pause in the accretion rate as opposed to variable line-of-sight obscuration. Candidates for the underlying mechanisms include propagating cold and warm fronts in the accretion disk. The increased prominence of the diskline BLR component's emission could be due to evolution in the physical extent of the X-ray corona, and in the fraction of >13.6 eV photons intercepted by the diskline, as the accretion rate increases.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

eROSITA Detection of a Cloud Obscuration Event in the Seyfert AGN EC 04570-5206

Recent years have seen broad observational support for the presence of a clumpy component within the circumnuclear gas around SMBHs. In the X-ray band, individual clouds can manifest themselves when they transit the line of sight to the X-ray corona, temporarily obscuring the X-ray continuum and thereby indicating the characteristics and location of these clouds. X-ray flux monitoring with SRG/eROSITA has revealed that in the Seyfert 1 AGN EC 04570-5206, the soft X-ray flux dipped abruptly for about 10-18 months over 2020-2021, only to recover and then drop a second time by early 2022. Here, we investigate whether these flux dips and recoveries could be associated with cloud occultation events. We complemented the eROSITA scans with multiwavelength follow-up observations, including X-ray/UV observations with Swift, XMM-Newton, and NICER, along with ground-based optical photometric and spectroscopic observations to investigate the spectral and flux variability. XMM-Newton spectra confirm that the soft X-ray flux dips were caused by partial-covering obscuration by two separate clouds. The 2020-2021 event was caused by a cloud with column density near 1e22 /cm2 and a covering fraction near 0.6. The cloud in the 2022 event had a column density near 3e23 /cm2 and a covering fraction near 0.8. The optical/UV continuum flux varied minimally and the optical emission line spectra showed no variability in Balmer profiles or intensity. The transiting gas clouds are neutral or lowly-ionized, while the lower limits on their radial distances are commensurate with the dust sublimation zone (cloud 1) or the optical broad line region (cloud 2). One possible explanation is a dust-free, outflowing wind with embedded X-ray clumps. These events are the first cloud obscuration events detected in a Seyfert galaxy using eROSITA's X-ray monitoring capabilities.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Inferring the morphology of AGN torus using X-ray spectra: A reliability study

Numerous X-ray spectral models have been developed to model emission reprocessed by the torus of an active galactic nucleus (AGN), e.g., UXCLUMPY, CTORUS, and MYTORUS. They span a range of assumed torus geometries and morphologies-some posit smooth gas distributions, and others posit distributions of clouds. It is suspected that given the quality of currently available data, certain model parameters, such as coronal power law photon index and parameters determining the morphology of the AGN torus, may be poorly constrained due to model degeneracies. In this work, we test the reliability of these models in terms of recovery of parameters and the ability to discern the morphology of the torus using XMM-Newton and NuSTAR spectral data. We perform extensive simulations of X-ray spectra of Compton-thick AGNs under six X-ray spectral models of the torus. We use Bayesian methods to investigate degeneracy between model parameters, distinguish models and determine the dependence of the parameter constraints on the instruments used. For typical exposure times and fluxes for nearby Compton-thick AGN, we find that several parameters across the models used here cannot be well constrained, e.g., the distribution of clouds, the number of clouds in the radial direction, even when the applied model is correct. We also find that Bayesian evidence values can robustly distinguish between a correct and a wrong model only if there is sufficient energy coverage and only if the intrinsic flux of the object is above a particular value determined by the instrument combination and the model considered.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

The variable and non-variable X-ray absorbers in Compton-thin type-II Active Galactic Nuclei

We have conducted an extensive X-ray spectral variability study of a sample of 20 Compton-thin type II galaxies using broad band spectra from XMM-Newton, Chandra, and Suzaku. The aim is to study the variability of the neutral intrinsic X-ray obscuration along the line of sight and investigate the properties and location of the dominant component of the X-ray-obscuring gas. The observations are sensitive to absorption columns of $N_{\rm H} \sim 10^{20.5-24} {\rm cm^{-2}}$ of fully- and partially-covering neutral and/or lowly-ionized gas on timescales spanning days to well over a decade. We detected variability in the column density of the full-covering absorber in 7/20 sources, on timescales of months-years, indicating a component of compact-scale X-ray-obscuring gas lying along the line of sight of each of these objects. Our results imply that torus models incorporating clouds or overdense regions should account for line of sight column densities as low as $\sim$ a few $\times 10^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$. However, 13/20 sources yielded no detection of significant variability in the full-covering obscurer, with upper limits to $ΔN_{\rm H}$ spanning $10^{21-23}$ cm$^{-2}$. The dominant absorbing media in these systems could be distant, such as kpc-scale dusty structures associated with the host galaxy, or a homogeneous medium along the line of sight. Thus, we find that overall, strong variability in full-covering obscurers is not highly prevalent in Compton-thin type IIs, at least for our sample, in contrast to previous results in the literature. Finally, 11/20 sources required a partial-covering, obscuring component in all or some of their observations, consistent with clumpy near-Compton-thick compact-scale gas.

astro-ph.GA↗