Tracking the complex absorption in NGC 2110 with two Suzaku observations

Abstract

We present spectral analysis of two Suzaku observations of the Seyfert 2 galaxy, NGC 2110. This source has been known to show complex, variable absorption which we study in depth by analyzing these two observations set 7 yr apart and by comparing them to previously analyzed observations with the XMM-Newton and Chandra observatories. We find that there is a relatively stable, full-covering absorber with a column density of ∼3× 1022 cm-2, with an additional patchy absorber that is likely variable in both column density and covering fraction over timescales of years, consistent with clouds in a patchy torus or in the broad line region. We model a soft emission line complex, likely arising from ionized plasma and consistent with previous studies. We find no evidence for reflection from an accretion disk in this source with contribution from neither relativistically broadened Fe Kα line emission, nor from a Compton reflection hump.