The Role of Complex Ionized Absorbers in the Soft X-Ray Spectra of Intermediate Polars

In magnetic cataclysmic variables (mCVs), X-ray radiation originates from a shock-heated, multi-temperature plasma in the post-shock region near the white dwarf's surface. These X-rays are modified by a complex distribution of absorbers in the pre-shock region. The presence of photoionized lines and warm absorber features in the soft X-ray spectra of these mCVs suggests that these absorbers are ionized. We developed the ionized complex absorber model zxipab, which is represented by a power-law distribution of ionized absorbers in the pre-shock flow. Using the ionized absorber model zxipab along with a cooling flow model with a reflection component, we model the broadband Chandra/High-Energy Transmission Grating (HETG) and Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) spectra of two intermediate polars (IPs): NY Lup and V1223 Sgr. We find that this model describes well many of the H- and He-like emission lines from medium-Z elements, which arise from a collisionally excited plasma. However the model fails to account for some of the He-like triplets from the medium-Z elements, which points toward their photoionized origin. We do not find compelling evidence for a blackbody component to model the soft excess seen in the residuals of the Chandra/HETG spectra, which could be due to uncertainties in the estimation of the interstellar absorption of these sources using the Chandra/HETG data and/or excess fluxes seen in some photoionized emission lines which are not accounted for by the cooling flow model. We describe the implications of this model with respect to the geometry of the pre-shock region for these two IPs.