Probing Unification With Chandra and XMM-Newton Imaging and Spectroscopic Observations of NGC 2110
Daniel Evans (Harvard University) , Julia Lee (Harvard University), Jane Turner (UMBC/GSFC), Kim Weaver (GSFC), Herman Marshall (MIT)
We present Chandra ACIS-S (50 ks), HETGS (250 ks) and XMM-Newton RGS (60 ks) imaging and spectroscopic observations of NGC 2110, a source classified as a Narrow Emission Line Galaxy, the subclass of Seyferts historically noted for their particularly flat X-ray spectra. Although the nuclear X-ray spectrum of NGC 2110 can be modeled as a power law of photon index absorbed by a column of
3 x 1022 cm-2, the excess absorption we detect at the Si K and Fe K edges implies the need for a more complex spectral model, which we find in the form of a "canonical" 
AGN spectrum modified by patchy absorption from multiple layers of neutral material. The measured photon index and high intrinsic absorption of the nuclear spectrum of NGC 2110 are consistent with that of a typical Seyfert 2 galaxy, which demonstrates that NELG are typical AGN viewed through slightly more complex absorption, rather than a separate subclass of objects on their own. Based on additional multiwavelength imaging studies, we also find resolved soft X-ray emission 160 pc north of the nucleus, which is spatially coincident with [OIII] emission (HST), but lies just beyond the northern edge of the small-scale radio jet in the source. Taken with the evidence for ionized emission in the HETGS spectra of NGC 2110, we suggest that both photoionization and collisional ionization processes play a role in the circumnuclear environment of the source.