The geometry of the hot corona in MCG-05-23-16 constrained by X-ray polarimetry
Daniele Tagliacozzo, Andrea Marinucci, F. Ursini, G. Matt, S. Bianchi, L. Baldini, Thibault Barnouin, N Cavero Rodriguez, A De Rosa, L Di Gesu, Michal Dovčiak, D Harper, Adam Ingram, V. Karas, Dawoon E. Kim, H. Krawczynski, G. Madejski, Frédéric Marin, R. Middei, Herman L. Marshall, Fabio Muleri, Christos Panagiotou, P-O Petrucci, Jakub Podgorný, Juri Poutanen, Simonetta Puccetti, P. Soffitta, Francesco Tombesi, Alexandra Veledina, Wenda Zhang, I. Agudo, L. A. Antonelli, Matteo Bachetti, W. H. Baumgartner, R. Bellazzini, Stephen D. Bongiorno, R. Bonino, A. Brez, N. Bucciantini, Fiamma Capitanio, Simone Castellano, E. Cavazzuti, C-T Chen, S. Ciprini, E. Costa, E. Del Monte, N Di Lalla, A Di Marco, I. Donnarumma, Victor Doroshenko, Steven R. Ehlert, Teruaki Enoto, Y. Evangelista, Sergio Fabiani, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Javier A. García, Shuichi Gunji, Jeremy Heyl, W. Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, P. Kaaret, Fabian Kislat, T. Kitaguchi, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Fabio La Monaca, L. Latronico, Ioannis Liodakis, S. Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Alan P. Marscher, F. Massaro, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Michela Negro, C-Y Ng, Stephen L. O’Dell, N. Omodei, C. Oppedisano, Alessandro Papitto, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, M. Perri, M. Pesce-Rollins, M. Pilia, Andrea Possenti, Brian D. Ramsey, John Rankin, Ajay Ratheesh, O. J. Roberts, Roger W. Romani, C. Sgró, Patrick Slane, G. Spandre, Douglas A. Swartz, Toru Tamagawa, F. Tavecchio, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Allyn F. Tennant, Nicholas E. Thomas
Abstract
ABSTRACT We report on the second observation of the radio-quiet active galactic nucleus MCG-05-23-16 performed with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). The observation started on 2022 November 6 for a net observing time of 640 ks, and was partly simultaneous with NuSTAR (86 ks). After combining these data with those obtained in the first IXPE pointing on 2022 May (simultaneous with XMM–Newton and NuSTAR) we find a 2–8 keV polarization degree Π = 1.6 ± 0.7 (at 68 per cent confidence level), which corresponds to an upper limit Π = 3.2 per cent (at 99 per cent confidence level). We then compare the polarization results with Monte Carlo simulations obtained with the monk code, with which different coronal geometries have been explored (spherical lamppost, conical, slab, and wedge). Furthermore, the allowed range of inclination angles is found for each geometry. If the best-fitting inclination value from a spectroscopic analysis is considered, a cone-shaped corona along the disc axis is disfavoured.