X-ray absorption analysis of NGC 3516: Appearance of fast components with increased source flux

By analyzing the X-ray spectra of NGC 3516 from 2001 and 2006 obtained with the HETGS spectrometer on board the Chandra X-ray Observatory, we find that the kinematic structure of the outflow can be well represented by four outflow components intrinsic to NGC 3516: -350±100kms^-1, -1500 ±150kms^-1, -2600±200kms^-1, and -4000±400kms^-1. A local component at z = 0 could be confused in the spectrum with intrinsic component 3. Components 1 and 2 have a broad range of ionization manifested by absorption from 23 different charge states of Fe. Components 3 and 4 are more highly ionized and show absorption from only nine different charge states of Fe. However, we were able to reconstruct the absorption measure distribution for all four. The total column density of each component is N _H = (1.8±0.5) × 10²² cm ^-2, (2.5±0.3) × 10²² cm^-2, (6.9±4.3) × 10²² cm^-2, and (5.4±1.2) × 10²² cm^-2, respectively. The fast components 3 and 4 appear only in the high state of 2006 and not in 2001, while the slower components persist during both epochs. On the other hand, there is no significant absorption variability within days during 2001 or 2006. We find that the covering factor plays a minor role for the line absorption.