We present a detailed and self-consistent modeling of the cosmic X-ray background (XRB) based on the most up-to-date X-ray luminosity functions (XLF) and evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). ...The large body of observational results collected by soft (0.5–2 keV) and hard (2–10 keV) X-ray surveys are used to constrain at best the properties of the Compton-thin AGN population and its contribution to the XRB emission. The number ratio R between moderately obscured (Compton-thin) AGN and unobscured AGN is fixed by the comparison between the soft and hard XLFs, which suggests that R decreases from 4 at low luminosities to 1 at high luminosities. From the same comparison there is no clear evidence of an evolution of the obscured AGN fraction with redshift. The distribution of the absorbing column densities in obscured AGN is determined by matching the soft and hard source counts. A distribution rising towards larger column densities is able to reproduce the soft and hard AGN counts over about 6 dex in flux. The model also reproduces with excellent accuracy the fraction of obscured objects in AGN samples selected at different X-ray fluxes. The integrated emission of the Compton-thin AGN population is found to underestimate the XRB flux at about 30 keV, calling for an additional population of extremely obscured (Compton-thick) AGN. Since the number of Compton-thick sources required to fit the 30 keV XRB emission strongly depends on the spectral templates assumed for unobscured and moderately obscured AGN, we explored the effects of varying the spectral templates. In particular, in addition to the column density distribution, we also considered a distribution in the intrinsic powerlaw spectral indices of variable width. In our baseline model a Gaussian distribution of photon indices with mean $\langle \Gamma \rangle=1.9$ and dispersion $\sigma_{\Gamma}=0.2$ is assumed. This increases the contribution of the Compton-thin AGN population to the 30 keV XRB intensity by ~$30\%$ with respect to the case of null dispersion (i.e. a single primary AGN powerlaw with $\Gamma=1.9$) but is not sufficient to match the 30 keV XRB emission. Therefore a population of heavily obscured -Compton-thick- AGN, as large as that of moderately obscured AGN, is required to fit the residual background emission. Remarkably, the fractions of Compton-thick AGN observed in the Chandra Deep Field South and in the first INTEGRAL and Swift catalogs of AGN selected above 10 keV are in excellent agreement with the model predictions.
ABSTRACT We present the catalog of optical and infrared counterparts of the Chandra COSMOS-Legacy Survey, a 4.6 Ms Chandra program on the 2.2 deg2 of the COSMOS field, combination of 56 new ...overlapping observations obtained in Cycle 14 with the previous C-COSMOS survey. In this Paper we report the i, K, and 3.6 m identifications of the 2273 X-ray point sources detected in the new Cycle 14 observations. We use the likelihood ratio technique to derive the association of optical/infrared (IR) counterparts for 97% of the X-ray sources. We also update the information for the 1743 sources detected in C-COSMOS, using new K and 3.6 m information not available when the C-COSMOS analysis was performed. The final catalog contains 4016 X-ray sources, 97% of which have an optical/IR counterpart and a photometric redshift, while 54% of the sources have a spectroscopic redshift. The full catalog, including spectroscopic and photometric redshifts and optical and X-ray properties described here in detail, is available online. We study several X-ray to optical (X/O) properties: with our large statistics we put better constraints on the X/O flux ratio locus, finding a shift toward faint optical magnitudes in both soft and hard X-ray band. We confirm the existence of a correlation between X/O and the the 2-10 keV luminosity for Type 2 sources. We extend to low luminosities the analysis of the correlation between the fraction of obscured AGNs and the hard band luminosity, finding a different behavior between the optically and X-ray classified obscured fraction.
ABSTRACT
We present a VLT/X-Shooter spectroscopy of the Lyman continuum (LyC) emitting galaxy Ion2 at z = 3.2121 and compare it to that of the recently discovered strongly lensed LyC emitter at ...z = 2.37, known as the Sunburst arc. Three main results emerge from the X-Shooter spectrum: (a) the Ly α has three distinct peaks with the central one at the systemic redshift, indicating a ionized tunnel through which both Ly α and LyC radiation escape; (b) the large O32 oxygen index (O iii λλ4959, 5007/O ii λλ3727, 3729) of $9.18_{-1.32}^{+1.82}$ is compatible to those measured in local (z ∼0.4) LyC leakers; (c) there are narrow nebular high-ionization metal lines with σv < 20 km s−1, which confirms the presence of young hot, massive stars. The He iiλ1640 appears broad, consistent with a young stellar component including Wolf–Rayet stars. Similarly, the Sunburst LyC emitter shows a triple-peaked Ly α profile and from VLT/MUSE spectroscopy the presence of spectral features arising from young hot and massive stars. The strong lensing magnification, (μ > 20), suggests that this exceptional object is a gravitationally bound star cluster observed at a cosmological distance, with a stellar mass M ≲ 107 M⊙ and an effective radius smaller than 20 pc. Intriguingly, sources like Sunburst but without lensing magnification might appear as Ion2-like galaxies, in which unresolved massive star clusters dominate the ultraviolet emission. This work supports the idea that dense young star clusters can contribute to the ionization of the IGM through holes created by stellar feedback.
The survival of dust grains in galaxies depends on various processes. Dust can be produced in stars, it can grow in the interstellar medium and be destroyed by astration and interstellar shocks. In ...this paper, we assemble a few data samples of local and distant star-forming galaxies to analyse various dust-related quantities in low- and high-redshift galaxies, and to study how the relations linking the dust mass to the stellar mass and star formation rate evolve with redshift. We interpret the available data by means of chemical evolution models for discs and proto-spheroid (PSPH) starburst galaxies. In particular, we focus on the dust-to-stellar mass (DTS) ratio, as this quantity represents a true measure of how much dust per unit stellar mass survives the various destruction processes in galaxies and is observable. The theoretical models outline the strong dependence of this quantity on the underlying star formation history. Spiral galaxies are characterized by a nearly constant DTS as a function of the stellar mass and cosmic time, whereas PSPHs present an early steep increase of the DTS, which stops at a maximal value and decreases in the latest stages. In their late starburst phase, these models show a decrease of the DTS with their mass, which allows us to explain the observed anti-correlation between the DTS and the stellar mass. The observed redshift evolution of the DTS ratio shows an increase from z ~ 0 to z ~ 1, followed by a roughly constant behaviour at ... Our models indicate a steep decrease of the global DTS at early times, which implies an expected decrease of the DTS at larger redshift. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
We present a systematic analysis of X-ray archival data of all the 29 quasars (QSOs) at z> 5.5 observed so far with Chandra, XMM-Newton and Swift-XRT, including the most-distant quasar ever ...discovered, ULAS J1120+0641 (z = 7.08). This study allows us to place constraints on the mean spectral properties of the primordial population of luminous Type 1 (unobscured) quasars. Eighteen quasars are detected in the X-ray band, and we provide spectral-fitting results for their X-ray properties, while for the others we provide upper limits to their soft (0.5–2.0 keV) X-ray flux. We measured the power-law photon index and derived an upper limit to the column density for the five quasars (J1306+0356, J0100+2802, J1030+0524, J1148+5251, J1120+0641) with the best spectra (>30 net counts in the 0.5–7.0 keV energy range) and find that they are consistent with values from the literature and lower-redshift quasars. By stacking the spectra of ten quasars detected by Chandra in the redshift range 5.7 ≤ z ≤ 6.1 we find a mean X-ray power-law photon index of Γ = 1.92-0.27+0.28 and a neutral intrinsic absorption column density of NH ≤ 1023 cm-2. These results suggest that the X-ray spectral properties of luminous quasars have not evolved up to z ≈ 6. We also derived the optical-X-ray spectral slopes (αox) of our sample and combined them with those of previous works, confirming that αox strongly correlates with UV monochromatic luminosity at 2500 Å. These results strengthen the non-evolutionary scenario for the spectral properties of luminous active galactic nuclei (AGN).
We present the hard-band (2–10 keV) X-ray luminosity function (HXLF) of 0.5–2 keV band selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) at high redshift. We have assembled a sample of 141 AGN at 3 < z ≲ 5 from ...X-ray surveys of different size and depth, in order to sample different regions in the L
X − z plane. The HXLF is fitted in the range log L
X ∼ 43–45 with standard analytical evolutionary models through a maximum likelihood procedure. The evolution of the HXLF is well described by a pure density evolution, with the AGN space density declining by a factor of ∼10 from z = 3 to 5. A luminosity-dependent density evolution model, which, normally, best represents the HXLF evolution at lower redshift, is also consistent with the data, but a larger sample of low-luminosity (log L
X < 44), high-redshift AGN is necessary to constrain this model. We also estimated the intrinsic fraction of AGN obscured by a column density log N
H ≥ 23 to be 0.54 ± 0.05, with no strong dependence on luminosity. This fraction is higher than the value in the Local Universe, suggesting an evolution of the luminous (L
X > 1044 erg s−1) obscured AGN fraction from z = 0 to z > 3.
We study the incidence of nuclear obscuration on a complete sample of 1310 active galactic nuclei (AGN) selected on the basis of their rest-frame 2-10 keV X-ray flux from the XMM-COSMOS survey, in ...the redshift range 0.3 < z < 3.5. We classify the AGN as obscured or unobscured on the basis of either the optical spectral properties and the overall SED or the shape of the X-ray spectrum. The two classifications agree in about 70 per cent of the objects, and the remaining 30 per cent can be further subdivided into two distinct classes: at low luminosities X-ray unobscured AGN do not always show signs of broad lines or blue/UV continuum emission in their optical spectra, most likely due to galaxy dilution effects; at high-luminosities broad-line AGN may have absorbed X-ray spectra, which hints at an increased incidence of small-scale (sub-parsec) dust-free obscuration. We confirm that the fraction of obscured AGN is a decreasing function of the intrinsic X-ray luminosity, while the incidence of absorption shows significant evolution only for the most luminous AGN, which appear to be more commonly obscured at higher redshift. We find no significant difference between the mean stellar masses and star formation rates of obscured and unobscured AGN hosts. We conclude that the physical state of the medium responsible for obscuration in AGN is complex and mainly determined by the radiation environment (nuclear luminosity) in a small region enclosed within the gravitational sphere of influence of the central black hole, but is largely insensitive to the wider scale galactic conditions.
We present X-shooter at Very Large Telescope observations of a sample of 10 luminous, X-ray obscured quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) at z ~ 1.5 from the XMM-COSMOS survey, expected to be caught in the ...transitioning phase from starburst to active galactic nucleus (AGN)-dominated systems. The main selection criterion is X-ray detection at bright fluxes (...) coupled to red optical-to-near-infrared-to-mid-infrared colours. Thanks to its large wavelength coverage, X-shooter allowed us to determine accurate redshifts from the presence of multiple emission lines for five out of six targets for which we had only a photometric redshift estimate, with an 80 per cent success rate, significantly larger than what is observed in similar programs of spectroscopic follow-up of red QSOs. We report the detection of broad and shifted components in the OIII ...5007, 4959 complexes for six out of eight sources with these lines observable in regions free from strong atmospheric absorptions. The full width at half-maximum (FWHM) associated with the broad components are in the range FWHM ~ 900-1600 km s..., larger than the average value observed in Sloan Digital Sky Survey type 2 AGN samples at similar observed OIII luminosity, but comparable to those observed for QSO/ultraluminous infrared galaxies systems for which the presence of kpc scale outflows has been revealed through integral field unit spectroscopy. Although the total outflow energetics (inferred under reasonable assumptions) may be consistent with winds accelerated by stellar processes, we favour an AGN origin for the outflows given the high outflow velocities observed (...) and the presence of strong winds also in objects undetected in the far-infrared. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
Abstract
We present the analysis of simultaneous Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and XMM-Newton data of eight Compton-thick active galactic nuclei (CT-AGN) candidates selected in the ...Swift-BAT 100 month catalog. This work is part of an ongoing effort to find and characterize all CT-AGN in the Local (
z
≤ 0.05) Universe. We used two physically motivated models,
MYTorus
and
borus02
, to characterize the sources in the sample, finding five of them to be confirmed CT-AGN. These results represent an increase of ∼19% over the previous NuSTAR-confirmed, BAT-selected CT-AGN at
z
≤ 0.05, bringing the total number to 32. This corresponds to an observed fraction of ∼8% of all AGN within this volume-limited sample, although it increases to 20% ± 5% when limiting the sample to
z
≤ 0.01. Out of a sample of 48 CT-AGN candidates, selected using BAT and soft (0.3−10 keV) X-ray data, only 24 are confirmed as CT-AGN with the addition of the NuSTAR data. This highlights the importance of NuSTAR when classifying local obscured AGN. We also note that most of the sources in our full sample of 48 Seyfert 2 galaxies with NuSTAR data have significantly different lines of sight and average torus column densities, favoring a patchy torus scenario.
We imaged, with ALMA and ARGOS/LUCI, the molecular gas and dust and stellar continuum in XID2028, which is an obscured quasi-stellar object (QSO) at z = 1.593, where the presence of a massive outflow ...in the ionised gas component traced by the OIII5007 emission has been resolved up to 10 kpc. This target represents a unique test case to study QSO feedback in action at the peak epoch of AGN-galaxy co-evolution. The QSO was detected in the CO(5 − 4) transition and in the 1.3 mm continuum at ~30 and ~20σ significance, respectively; both emissions are confined in the central (<2 kpc) radius area. Our analysis suggests the presence of a fast rotating molecular disc (v ~ 400 km s−1) on very compact scales well inside the galaxy extent seen in the rest-frame optical light (~10 kpc, as inferred from the LUCI data). Adding available measurements in additional two CO transitions, CO(2 − 1) and CO(3 − 2), we could derive a total gas mass of ~1010 M⊙, thanks to a critical assessment of CO excitation and the comparison with the Rayleigh–Jeans continuum estimate. This translates into a very low gas fraction (<5%) and depletion timescales of 40–75 Myr, reinforcing the result of atypical gas consumption conditions in XID2028, possibly because of feedback effects on the host galaxy. Finally, we also detect the presence of high velocity CO gas at ~5σ, which we interpret as a signature of galaxy-scale molecular outflow that is spatially coincident with the ionised gas outflow. XID2028 therefore represents a unique case in which the measurement of total outflowing mass, of ~500–800 M⊙ yr−1 including the molecular and atomic components in both the ionised and neutral phases, was attempted for a high-z QSO.
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