Browsing by Author "Willmer, C. N. A."

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    Dramatic X-ray spectral variability of a Compton-thick type-1 QSO at z ∼ 1
    (2018) Simm, T.; Buchner, J.; Merloni, A.; Nandra, K.; Shen, Y.; Erben, T.; Coil, A. L.; Willmer, C. N. A.; Schneider, D. P.
    We report on the discovery of a dramatic X-ray spectral variability event observed in a z similar to 1 broad line type-1 QSO. The XMM Newton spectrum from the year 2000 is characterized by an unobscured power-law spectrum with photon index of Gamma similar to 2, a column density of N-H similar to 5 x 10(20) cm(-2), and no prominent reflection component. Five years later, Chandra captured the source in a heavily-obscured, reflection-dominated state. The observed X-ray spectral variability could be caused by a Compton-thick cloud with N-H similar to 2 x 10(24) cm(-2) eclipsing the direct emission of the hot corona, implying an extreme N-H variation never before observed in a type-1 QSO. An alternative scenario is a corona that switched off in between the observations. In addition, both explanations require a significant change of the X-ray luminosity prior to the obscuration or fading of the corona and/or a change of the relative geometry of the source/reflector system. Dramatic X-ray spectral variability of this kind could be quite common in type-1 QSOs, considering the relatively few data sets in which such an event could have been identified. Our analysis implies that there may be a population of type-1 QSOs which are Compton-thick in the X-rays when observed at any given time.
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    Metallicity effects on dust properties in starbursting galaxies
    (2008) Engelbracht, C. W.; Rieke, G. H.; Gordon, K. D.; Smith, J. -D. T.; Werner, M. W.; Moustakas, J.; Willmer, C. N. A.; Vanzi, L.
    We present infrared observations of 66 starburst galaxies over the full range of oxygen abundances observed in local star-forming galaxies, from 12 + log(O/H) = 7.1 to 8.9. The data include imaging and spectroscopy from the Spitzer Space Telescope, supplemented by ground-based near-infrared imaging. We confirm a strong correlation of aromatic emission with metallicity, with a threshold at 12 + log(O/H) similar to 8. We show that the far-infrared color temperature of the large dust grains increases toward lower metallicity, peaking at a metallicity of 8 before turning over. We compute dust masses and compare them to H I masses from the literature to derive the ratio of atomic gas to dust, which increases by nearly 3 orders of magnitude between solar metallicity and a metallicity of 8, below which it flattens out. The abrupt change in aromatic emission at mid-infrared wavelengths thus appears to be reflected in the far-infrared properties, indicating that metallicity changes affect the composition of the full range of dust grain sizes that dominate the infrared emission. Although the great majority of galaxies show similar patterns of behavior as described above, there are three exceptions, SBS 0335-052E, Haro 11, and SHOC 391. Their infrared SEDs are dominated energetically by the mid-IR near 24 mu m rather than by the 60-200 mu m region. In addition, they have very weak near-infrared outputs and their SEDs are dominated by emission by dust at wavelengths as short as 1.8 mu m. The latter behavior indicates that the dominant star-forming episodes in them are extremely young. The component of the ISM responsible for the usual far-infrared emission appears to be either missing or inefficiently heated in these three galaxies.