ChandraObservation of 3C 212: A New Look at the X‐Ray and Ultraviolet Absorbers

The red quasar 3C 212 (z=1.049) is one of the most distant and most luminousAGN which has shown evidence of an X-ray warm absorber. In order to furtherinvestigate this unusual quasar, we used Chandra/ACIS-S to observe 3C 212 for19.5 ksec, resulting in a net detection of ~4000 counts. The Chandra dataconfirm the presence of an excess absorbing column N_H ~ 4 x 10^21 cm^-2 at thequasar redshift, but we find no compelling evidence for a warm absorber. Usingboth the Chandra and archival ROSAT PSPC data, we obtain very good fits forboth a partially covered neutral absorber and a low-ionization (U = 0.03)photo-ionized absorber. In the ultraviolet, 3C 212 shows a strong associatedMgII absorber. Based on a moderate resolution (80 km/s) MMT spectrum we showthat the absorber is highly saturated and has a covering fraction less than60%, implying that the absorber is truly intrinsic to the quasar.Photo-ionization modeling of the MgII absorber yields a constraint on theionization parameter of U < 0.03, inconsistent with a warm UV/X-ray absorber.In addition to our spectral analysis, we find evidence in the ACIS image datafor weak extended emission surrounding the quasar as well as emissioncorresponding to the radio lobes at a distance of 5 arcsec from 3C 212. Thestatistical significance of these features is low, but we briefly explore theimplications if the detections are valid.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa