THE LINK BETWEEN ACCRETION AND OUTFLOWS IN ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (AGN) IS POORLY UNDERSTOOD. COUPLING HIGH SPECTRAL RESOLUTION CHANDRA/LETGS DATA AT LOW ENERGIES WITH HIGH ENERGY DATA FROM NUSTAR CAN ELUCIDATE THE RELATION BETWEEN THESE PROCESSES AT WORK IN THE INNERMOST REGIONS OF AGN. WE HAVE BEEN AWARDED TWO 90-KS NUSTAR POINTINGS ON THE AGN NGC 3516 TO BE EXECUTED CONTEMPORANEOUSLY WITH TWO CHANDRA/ LETGS OBSERVATIONS IN JULY AND AUGUST 2017. THE CHANDRA OBSERVATIONS HAVE BEEN PLANNED THREE WEEKS APART IN ORDER TO MAXIMIZE THE POTENTIAL TO DETECT ABSORPTION VARIABILITY BETWEEN POINTINGS BASED ON PREVIOUS STUDIES. THE ADDITION OF NUSTAR TO THE CAMPAIGN WILL CRITICALLY AUGMENT THE LETGS STUDY OF THE ABSORPTION LINES AT 10-40 A BY PROVIDING ACCURATE CONTINUUM INFORMATION ENABLING US TO ISOLATE SIGNATURES OF THE OUTFLOWING WIND AND TO DETERMINE ITS DRIVING MECHANISM. WE WILL PERFORM SPECTRAL AND TEMPORAL ANALYSES IN COMPARISON WITH DATA ON THE SOURCE FROM PREVIOUS (UNOBSCURED) EPOCHS GIVEN THE EXPECTATION OF SIGNIFICANT SPECTRAL VARIABILITY FOR NGC 3516. BY COMPARING THE PROPERTIES OF THE OUTFLOW IN THE NEW LETGS SPECTRA WITH ARCHIVAL GRATING SPECTRA WE CAN THUS ESTABLISH WHETHER THE SOURCE IS OBSCURED BY AN OUTFLOWING WIND. SUCH A WIND WOULD PRODUCE NEW DISTINCT LOW-IONIZATION ABSORPTION LINES WHICH WOULD NOT BE PRESENT WHEN THE X-RAY SOURCE WAS UNOBSCURED. OUR IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVES FOR THESE OBSERVATIONS ARE AS FOLLOWS IN ORDER OF PRIORITY FOR ACHIEVING OUR SCIENCE GOALS: ESTABLISH THE CORRECT CONTINUUM SLOPE AND FLUX LEVEL FROM 0.5-79 KEV PROVIDING A BASELINE AGAINST WHICH TO MEASURE THE SIGNATURES OF THE WA AND OBSCURING WIND; QUANTIFY THE PROPERTIES OF THE REFLECTION SPECTRUM INCLUDING ITS STRENGTH AND THE IRON ABUNDANCE AND IONIZATION OF ITS GAS AS WELL AS THE PRESENCE/ABSENCE OF A RELATIVISTIC COMPONENT FROM THE INNER ACCRETION DISK; PROVIDE THE BEST CONSTRAINTS ON THE TEMPERATURE OPTICAL DEPTH AND COMPACTNESS OF THE CORONA; IF RELATIVISTIC INNER DISK REFLECTION IS PRESENT ISOLATE AND MODEL THESE FEATURES IN ORDER TO PROVIDE THE FIRST-EVER CONSTRAINT ON THE SMBH SPIN FOR THIS SOURCE.
$50,307FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC