Reconciling X-Ray and λ21 cm H I Absorption Gas Column Densities toward Obscured AGN

Abstract

Hydrogen column densities inferred from X-ray absorption are typically 5–30 times larger than the neutral atomic hydrogen column densities derived from λ21 cm H I absorption toward radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN). Some part of the difference is ascribed to uncertainty in the spin temperature Tsp = 100 K that is often used to convert λ21 cm H I absorption to N(H I). Here we propose another way to infer the gas column from H I absorption. In our Galaxy there is a nearly linear correlation between the inteferometrically measured integrated λ21 cm absorption ϒH I and reddening, ϒH I ∝ E(B–V)1.10 for ϒH I ≳ 0.7 km s−1 or E(B–V) ≳ 0.04 mag. Scaling E(B–V) then provides the total gas column density N(H) from the same dust column that is responsible for optical obscuration and X-ray absorption, without calculating N(H I). Values of N(H) so derived typically exceed N(H I) by a factor 4 because the ubiquitous Galactic λ21 cm H I absorption samples only a portion of the interstellar gas. If the well-studied case of Hydra-A is a guide, even very large disparities in X-ray and λ21 cm gas column densities can be explained by resolving the core radio continuum and inferring N(H) from λ21 cm absorption. Milky Way conditions are often invoked in discussion of obscured AGN, so the empirical relationship seen in the Milky Way should be a relevant benchmark.