Preliminary analysis of the X-ray emission from the central regions of the Pictor A

Abstract

Here we present some preliminary results of our analysis of the combined Chandra observations of the Pictor A radio galaxy. All the available Chandra data for the target, consisting of multiple pointings spanning over 15 years and amounting to the total exposure time of 464 ks, have been included in the analysis. We studied in detail the PSFs of the core region in the individual pointings, as well as the radial profile of the X-ray surface brightness of the source in the combined dataset, in order to discriminate between the radiative output of the unresolved core and the host galaxy. Based on these, we have performed spectral modeling of the active nucleus, constraining its variability.