Compton-thick AGNs in the NuSTAR Era Marchesi, S.; Ajello, M.; Marcotulli, L. ...
Astrophysical journal/The Astrophysical journal,
02/2018, Volume:
854, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We present the 2-100 keV spectral analysis of 30 candidate Compton-thick-(CT-)active galactic nuclei (AGNs) selected in the Swift-Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) 100 month survey. The average redshift of ...these objects is , and they all lie within ∼500 Mpc. We used the MyTorus model to perform X-ray spectral fittings both without and with the contribution of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) data in the 3-50 keV energy range. When the NuSTAR data are added to the fit, 13 out of 30 of these objects (43% of the whole sample) have intrinsic absorption NH < 1024 cm−2 at the >3 confidence level, i.e., they are reclassified from Compton thick to Compton thin. Consequently, we infer an overall observed fraction of the CT-AGN, with respect to the whole AGN population, lower than the one reported in previous works, as low as ∼4%. We find evidence that this overestimation of NH is likely due to the low quality of a subsample of spectra, either in the 2-10 keV band or in the Swift-BAT one.
General Physical Properties of CGRaBS Blazars Paliya, Vaidehi S.; Marcotulli, L.; Ajello, M. ...
Astrophysical journal/The Astrophysical journal,
12/2017, Volume:
851, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We present the results of a multi-frequency, time-averaged analysis of blazars included in the Candidate Gamma-ray Blazar Survey catalog. Our sample consists of 324 γ-ray detected (γ-ray loud) and ...191 γ-ray undetected (γ-ray quiet) blazars; we consider all the data up to 2016 April 1. We find that both the γ-ray loud and γ-ray quiet blazar populations occupy similar regions in the WISE color-color diagram, and γ-ray loud sources are brighter in the radio and X-ray bands. A simple one-zone synchrotron inverse-Compton emission model is applied to derive the physical properties of both populations. We find that the central black hole mass and accretion disk luminosity ( L disk ) computed from the modeling of the optical-UV emission with a Shakura-Sunyaev disk reasonably matches that estimated from the optical spectroscopic emission-line information. A significantly larger Doppler boosting in the γ-ray loud blazars is noted, and their jets are more radiatively efficient. On the other hand, the γ-ray quiet objects are more MeV-peaked and thus could be potential targets for next-generation MeV missions. Our results confirm earlier findings about the accretion-jet connection in blazars; however, many of the γ-ray quiet blazars tend to deviate from the recent claim that the jet power exceeds L disk in blazars. A broadband study, considering a larger set of γ-ray quiet objects and also including BL Lacs, will be needed to confirm/reject this hypothesis as well as to verify the evolution of the powerful high-redshift blazars into their low-power nearby counterparts.
Abstract Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can power relativistic jets, which are called blazars when pointed close to our line of sight. Depending on the presence or absence of emission lines in their ...optical spectra, blazars are categorized into flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) or BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects. According to the “blazar sequence,” as synchrotron peak frequency ( ν pk sy ) shifts to higher energies, the synchrotron peak luminosity decreases. This means that BL Lac objects as luminous as FSRQs, and with synchrotron peak frequencies ν pk sy > 10 15 Hz, should not exist. Detected as a high-synchrotron peak (HSP; ν pk sy > 10 15 Hz) BL Lac object, 4FGL J1520.8-0348 shows high γ -ray luminosity ( L γ > 10 46 erg s −1 ), being at a high redshift of z = 1.46. Since it is an outlier in the “blazar sequence,” the process of its jet acceleration and power may be different from bona fide BL Lac objects. In this work, we constrain its spectral energy distribution (SED) by modeling the multiwavelength data from infrared to γ -ray regime. Simultaneous X-ray data were obtained from X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission and Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array to constrain the synchrotron emission and underlying electron distribution. On undertaking the SED modeling of the source, including the effect of extragalactic background light, we conclude that the source is more likely to be a “blue FSRQ” or “masquerading BL Lac” where the BL Lac object is actually an FSRQ in disguise.
Source-count Distribution of Gamma-Ray Blazars Marcotulli, L.; Di Mauro, M.; Ajello, M.
Astrophysical journal/The Astrophysical journal,
06/2020, Volume:
896, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
With 10 years of operation and an exceptional data set, the Fermi-Large Area Telescope allows us to unveil the detailed composition of the extragalactic γ-ray sky above 100 MeV. In this paper, we ...derive the intrinsic source-count distribution (logN-logS) of extragalactic sources (i.e., blazars) at via the efficiency correction method. With this approach, we are able to measure the distribution down to a photon flux of and to an energy flux of ∼10−12 . In both cases, the logN-logS becomes flatter at low fluxes. Moreover, we show that this logN-logS is representative of the blazar population (assuming the majority of unassociated sources are blazars) and allows us to constrain its evolution quite effectively. Among recently proposed evolutionary models, we find that the Pure Density Evolution model best describes the evolutionary properties of the blazar population and that their integrated emission accounts for of the total extragalactic γ-ray background.
We present the analysis of a sample of 35 candidate Compton-thick active galactic nuclei (AGNs) selected in the nearby universe (average redshift ) with the Swift-BAT 100-month survey. All sources ...have available NuSTAR data, thus allowing us to constrain with unprecedented quality important spectral parameters such as the obscuring torus line-of-sight column density (NH,z), the average torus column density (NH,tor), and the torus covering factor (fc). We compare the best-fit results obtained with the widely used MYTorus (Murphy & Yaqoob 2009) model with those of the recently published borus02 model (Balokovi et al. 2018) used in the same geometrical configuration of MYTorus (i.e., with fc = 0.5). We find a remarkable agreement between the two, although with increasing dispersion in NH,z moving toward higher column densities. We then use borus02 to measure fc. High-fc sources have, on average, smaller offset between NH,z and NH,tor than low-fc ones. Therefore, low fc values can be linked to a "patchy torus" scenario, where the AGN is seen through an overdense region in the torus, while high-fc objects are more likely to be obscured by a more uniform gas distribution. Finally, we find potential evidence of an inverse trend between fc and the AGN 2-10 keV luminosity, i.e., sources with higher fc values have on average lower luminosities.
Abstract
Active galactic nuclei with their relativistic jets pointed toward the observer are a class of luminous gamma-ray sources commonly known as blazars. The study of this source class is ...essential to unveil the physical processes powering these extreme jets, to understand their cosmic evolution, as well as to indirectly probe the extragalactic background light. To do so, however, one needs to correctly classify and measure a redshift for a large sample of these sources. The Third Fermi–LAT Catalog of High-Energy Sources (3FHL) contains 1212 blazars detected at energies greater than 10 GeV. However, ∼25% of these sources are unclassified and ∼56% lack redshift information. To increase the optical completeness of blazars in the 3FHL catalog, we devised an optical spectroscopic follow-up campaign using 4 m and 8 m telescopes. In this paper, we present the results of the last part of this campaign, where we observed 5 blazars using the 8 m Gemini-S telescope in Chile. We report all the 5 sources to be classified as BL Lacs, a redshift lower limit for 2 sources, and featureless spectra for the remaining 3 sources. We also performed a one-zone leptonic fit to the two sources with the redshift lower limits.
The recently released 105-month Swift-Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) all-sky hard X-ray survey catalog presents an opportunity to study astrophysical objects detected in the deepest look at the entire ...hard X-ray (14-195 keV) sky. Here we report the results of a multifrequency study of 146 blazars from this catalog, quadrupling the number compared to past studies, by utilizing recent data from the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT), Swift-BAT, and archival measurements. In our γ-ray analysis of ∼10 yr of the LAT data, 101 are found as γ-ray emitters, whereas, 45 remains LAT undetected. We model the broadband spectral energy distributions with a synchrotron-inverse Compton radiative model. On average, BAT detected sources host massive black holes (Mbh ∼ 109 M ) and luminous accretion disks (Ld ∼ 1046 erg s−1). At high redshifts (z > 2), BAT blazars host more powerful jets with luminous accretion disks compared to those detected only with Fermi-LAT. We find good agreement in the black hole masses derived from the single-epoch optical spectroscopic measurements and standard accretion disk modeling approaches. Other physical properties of BAT blazars are similar to those known for Fermi-LAT detected objects.
The Hubble constant H0 and matter density m of the universe are measured using the latest γ-ray attenuation results from Fermi-LAT and Cerenkov telescopes. This methodology is based upon the fact ...that the extragalactic background light supplies opacity for very high energy photons via photon-photon interaction. The amount of γ-ray attenuation along the line of sight depends on the expansion rate and matter content of the universe. This novel strategy results in a value of km s−1 Mpc−1 and . These estimates are independent and complementary to those based on the distance ladder, cosmic microwave background (CMB), clustering with weak lensing, and strong lensing data. We also produce a joint likelihood analysis of our results from γ-rays and those from more mature methodologies, excluding the CMB, yielding a combined value of H0 = 66.6 1.6 km s−1 Mpc−1 and m = 0.29 0.02.
We present the combined NuSTAR and XMM-Newton 0.6-79 keV spectral analysis of a Seyfert 2 galaxy, NGC 1358, which we selected as a candidate Compton-thick (CT) active galactic nucleus (AGN) on the ...basis of previous Swift/BAT and Chandra studies. According to our analysis, NGC 1358 is confirmed to be a CT-AGN using physically motivated models, at >3 confidence level. Our best fit shows that the column density along the line of sight of the obscuring material surrounding the accreting supermassive black hole is NH = (1.96-2.80) × 1024 cm−2. The high-quality data from NuSTAR give the best constraints on the spectral shape above ∼10 keV to date on NGC 1358. Moreover, by combining NuSTAR and XMM-Newton data, we find that the obscuring torus has a low covering factor (fc < 0.17), and the obscuring material is distributed in clumps, rather than uniformly. We also derive an estimate of NGC 1358's Eddington ratio, finding it to be λEdd ∼ × 10−2, which is in acceptable agreement with previous measurements. Finally, we find no evidence of short-term variability, over a ∼100 ks time span, in terms of both line-of-sight column density and flux.
With bolometric luminosities exceeding 1048 erg s−1, powerful jets, and supermassive black holes at their center, MeV blazars are some of the most extreme sources in the universe. Recently, the ...Fermi-Large Area Telescope detected five new γ-ray emitting MeV blazars beyond redshift z = 3.1. With the goal of precisely characterizing the jet properties of these extreme sources, we started a multiwavelength campaign to follow them up with joint Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, Swift, and the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy's optical telescopes. We observe six high-redshift quasars, four of them belonging to the new γ-ray emitting MeV blazars. Thorough X-ray analysis reveals spectral flattening at soft X-ray for three of these objects. The source NVSS J151002+570243 also shows a peculiar rehardening of the X-ray spectrum at energies E > 6 keV. Adopting a one-zone leptonic emission model, this combination of hard X-rays and γ-rays enables us to determine the location of the Inverse Compton peak and to accurately constrain the jet characteristics. In the context of the jet-accretion disk connection, we find that all six sources have jet powers exceeding accretion disk luminosity, seemingly validating this positive correlation even beyond z > 3. Our six sources are found to have black holes, further raising the space density of supermassive black holes in the redshift bin z = 3, 4.
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