Multiwavelength Monitoring of the Dwarf Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 4395. IV. The Variable UV Absorption Lines

We report the detection of variable UV absorption lines in NGC 4395, based on UV observations with the HST STIS carried out in 2004 April and July as part of a reverberation-mapping campaign. Low-ionization lines of O I, N I, Si II, C II, and Fe II are present in the low-state spectra (2004 April) at a velocity v shift = − 250 km s −1 (system A l ), and additional high-ionization lines of C IV and N V appear in the high-state spectra (2004 July) at v shift = − 250 km s −1 (system A h ) and at v shift = − 840 km s −1 (system B). The absence of absorption from the low metastable levels of Si II implies a density ≲10 3 cm −3 for system A l , indicating a location outside the narrow line region (NLR). System A h is peculiar as only N V absorption is clearly detected. A high N V/C IV absorption ratio is expected for a high-metallicity absorber, but this is excluded here as the metallicity of the host galaxy and of the nuclear gas is significantly subsolar. A simple acceptable model for systems A h and B is an absorber located between the broad line region (BLR) and the NLR, which absorbs only the continuum and the BLR. At the low state the strong narrow emission lines of C IV and N V dominate the spectrum, making the absorption invisible. At the high state the absorbed continuum and BLR emission dominate the spectrum. Thus, the change in the observed absorption does not reflect a change in the absorber, but rather a change in the continuum and BLR emission from behind the absorber, relative to the emission from the NLR in front of the absorber. Studies of the absorption line variability in highly variable objects can thus break the degeneracy in the absorber distance determination inherent to single-epoch studies.