On The Reddening in X-ray Absorbed Seyfert 1 Galaxies

Abstract

There are several Seyfert galaxies for which there is a discrepancy between the small column of neutral hydrogen deduced from X-ray observations and the much greater column derived from the reddening of the optical/UV emission lines and continuum. The standard paradigm has the dust within the highly ionized gas which produces O~VII and O~VIII absorption edges (i.e., a ``dusty warm absorber''). We present an alternative model in which the dust exists in a component of gas in which hydrogen has been stripped, but which is at too low an ionization state to possess significant columns of O~VII and O~VIII (i.e, a ``lukewarm absorber''). The lukewarm absorber is at sufficient radial distance to encompass much of the narrow emission-line region, and thus accounts for the narrow-line reddening, unlike the dusty warm absorber. We test the model by using a combination of photoionization models and absorption edge fits to analyze the combined ROSAT/ASCA dataset for the Seyfert 1.5 galaxy, NGC 3227. We show that the data are well fit by a combination of the lukewarm absorber and a more highly ionized component similar to that suggested in earlier studies. We predict that the lukewarm absorber will produce strong UV absorption lines of N V, C IV, Si IV and Mg II. Finally, these results illustrate that singly ionized helium is an important, and often overlooked, source of opacity in the soft X-ray band (100 - 500 eV).