Compton-thick AGN in the NuSTAR Era. IX. A Joint NuSTAR and XMM-Newton Analysis of Four Local AGN

Abstract

Abstract We present the results of the broadband X-ray spectral analysis of simultaneous NuSTAR and XMM-Newton observations of four nearby Compton-thick active galactic nuclei (AGN) candidates selected from the Swift Burst Alert Telescope 150 month catalog. This work is part of a larger effort to identify and characterize all Compton-thick ( N H ≥ 10 24 cm −2 ) AGN in the local universe ( z ≤ 0.05). We used three physically motivated models— MYTorus , borus02 , and UXClumpy —to fit and characterize these sources. Of the four candidates analyzed, 2MASX J02051994-0233055 was found to be an unobscured ( N H < 10 22 cm −2 ) AGN, 2MASX J04075215-6116126 and IC 2227 to be Compton-thin (10 22 cm −2 < N H < 10 24 cm −2 ) AGN, and one, ESO 362−8, was confirmed to be a Compton-thick AGN. Additionally, every source was found to have a statistically significant difference between their line-of-sight and average torus hydrogen column density, further supporting the idea that the obscuring material in AGN is inhomogeneous. Furthermore, half of the sources in our sample (2MASX J02051994-0233055 and 2MASX J04075215-6116126) exhibited significant luminosity variation in the last decade, suggesting that this might be a common feature of AGN.