RX J1301.9+2747: A Highly Variable Seyfert Galaxy with Extremely Soft X-ray Emission

Abstract: In this paper we present a temporal and spectral analysis of X-ray data from the XMM and Chandra observations of the ultrasoft and variable Seyfert galaxy RX J1301.9+2747. In both observations the source clearly displays two distinct states in the X-ray band, a long quiescent state and a short flare (or eruptive) state which differs in count rates by a factor of 5--7. The transition from quiescent to flare state occurs in 1--2 ks. We have observed that the quiescent state spectrum is unprecedentedly steep with a photon index Gamma~7.1, and the spectrum of the flare state is flatter with Gamma~4.4. X-rays above 2 keV were not significantly detected in either state. In the quiescent state, the spectrum appears to be dominated by a black body component of temperature about ~30--40 eV, which is comparable to the expected maximum effective temperature from the inner accretion disk. The quiescent state however, requires an additional steep power-law, presumably arising from the Comptonization by transient heated electrons. Optical spectrum from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey shows Seyfert-like narrow lines for RX J1301.9+2747, while the HST imaging reveals a central point source for the object. In order to precisely determine the hard X-ray component, future longer X-ray observations are required. This will help constrain the accretion disk model for RX J1301.9+2747, and shed new light into the characteristics of the corona and accretion flows around black holes.