Supersolar Metallicity in the NLS1 Galaxy Markarian 1044

We present measurements of the metallicity of the circumnuclear gas in the narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxy Markarian 1044 using O VI column density measurements from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) together with C IV, N V, and H I measurements from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). From the absorption lines we find that the circumnuclear gas in Mrk 1044 has a metallicity of at least 5 times solar, consistent with the expectation from previous emission-line studies that NLS1s have a high metallicity, similar to that found in high-redshift quasars. More surprisingly, we find that the absorbing material requires a near-solar mixture of elements in which the N/C ratio is consistent with the solar ratio and does not scale with the metallicity. This suggests that the chemical enrichment scenario for this active galactic nucleus (and thus possibly others) may be different from the traditional model of galactic metal enrichment, at least in the high-metallicity regime.