PEERING THROUGH THE DUST: NuSTAR OBSERVATIONS OF TWO FIRST-2MASS RED QUASARS

Some reddened quasars appear to be transitional objects in the paradigm of merger-induced black hole growth/galaxy evolution, where a heavily obscured nucleus starts to be unveiled by powerful quasar winds evacuating the surrounding cocoon of dust and gas. Hard X-ray observations are able to peer through this gas and dust, revealing the properties of circumnuclear obscuration. Here, we present NuSTAR and XMM-Newton/Chandra observations of FIRST-2MASS-selected red quasars F2M 0830+3759 and F2M 1227+3214. We find that though F2M 0830 +3759 is moderately obscured (N-H,(Z) = (2.1 +/- 0.2) x 10(22) cm(-2)) and F2M 1227+3214 is mildly absorbed (N-H,(Z) = 3.4(- 0.7)(+0.8) x 10(21) cm(-2)) along the line of sight, heavier global obscuration may be present in both sources, with N-H,(S) = 3.7(- 2.6)(+4.1) x 10(23) cm(-2) and <5.5 x 10(23) cm(-2) for F2M 0830+3759 and F2M 1227+3214, respectively. F2M 0830+3759 also has an excess of soft X-ray emission below 1 keV, which is well accommodated by a model where 7% of the intrinsic X-ray emission from the active galactic nucleus (AGN) is scattered into the line of sight. While F2M 1227+3214 has a dust-to-gas ratio (E(B - V)/N-H) consistent with the Galactic value, the value of E(B - V)/N-H for F2M 0830+3759 is lower than the Galactic standard, consistent with the paradigm that the dust resides on galactic scales while the X-ray reprocessing gas originates within the dust sublimation zone of the broad-line region. The X-ray and 6.1 mu m luminosities of these red quasars are consistent with the empirical relations derived for high-luminosity, unobscured quasars, extending the parameter space of obscured AGNs previously observed by NuSTAR to higher luminosities.