Today's sensitive X-ray observations allow the study of populations of X-ray binaries in galaxies as distant as 20–30 Mpc. Photometric diagrams and luminosity functions applied to these populations ...provide a direct probe of the evolved binary component of different stellar populations. The study of the X-ray populations of E and S0 galaxies has revamped the debate on the formation and evolution of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) and on the role of globular clusters in these processes. Though overall stellar mass drives the amount of X-ray binaries in old stellar populations, the amount of sources in star-forming galaxies is related to the star-formation rate. Short-lived, luminous, high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) dominate these young X-ray populations. The most luminous sources in these systems are the debated ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). Observations of the deep X-ray sky, and comparison with deep optical surveys, are providing the first evidence of the X-ray evolution of galaxies.
We present a sample of 40 active galactic nucleus (AGN) in dwarf galaxies at redshifts z ≲ 2.4. The galaxies are drawn from the Chandra COSMOS-Legacy survey as having stellar masses 107 ≤ M* ≤ 3 × ...109 M⊙. Most of the dwarf galaxies are star forming. After removing the contribution from star formation to the X-ray emission, the AGN luminosities of the 40 dwarf galaxies are in the range L0.5-10 keV ∼ 1039-1044 erg s-1. With 12 sources at z > 0.5, our sample constitutes the highest-redshift discovery of AGN in dwarf galaxies. The record-holder is cid_1192, at z = 2.39 and with L0.5-10 keV ∼ 1044 erg s-1. One of the dwarf galaxies has M* = 6.6 × 107 M⊙ and is the least massive galaxy found so far to host an AGN. All the AGN are of type 2 and consistent with hosting intermediate-mass black holes (BHs) with masses ∼104-105 M⊙ and typical Eddington ratios >1 per cent. We also study the evolution, corrected for completeness, of AGN fraction with stellar mass, X-ray luminosity, and redshift in dwarf galaxies out to z = 0.7. We find that the AGN fraction for 109 < M* ≤ 3 × 109 M⊙ and LX ∼ 1041-1042 erg s-1 is ∼0.4 per cent for z ≤ 0.3 and that it decreases with X-ray luminosity and decreasing stellar mass. Unlike massive galaxies, the AGN fraction seems to decrease with redshift, suggesting that AGN in dwarf galaxies evolve differently than those in high-mass galaxies. Mindful of potential caveats, the results seem to favour a direct collapse formation mechanism for the seed BHs in the early Universe.
ABSTRACT We study a sample of ∼50,000 dwarf starburst and late-type galaxies drawn from the COSMOS survey with the aim of investigating the presence of nuclear accreting black holes (BHs) as those ...seed BHs from which supermassive BHs could grow in the early universe. We divide the sample into five complete redshift bins up to z = 1.5 and perform an X-ray stacking analysis using the Chandra COSMOS-Legacy survey data. After removing the contribution from X-ray binaries and hot gas to the stacked X-ray emission, we still find an X-ray excess in the five redshift bins that can be explained by nuclear accreting BHs. This X-ray excess is more significant for . At higher redshifts, these active galactic nuclei could suffer mild obscuration, as indicated by the analysis of their hardness ratios. The average nuclear X-ray luminosities in the soft band are in the range 1039-1040 erg s−1. Assuming that the sources accrete at ≥1% the Eddington rate, their BH masses would be ≤105 , thus in the intermediate-mass BH regime, but their mass would be smaller than the one predicted by the BH-stellar mass relation. If instead the sources follow the correlation between BH mass and stellar mass, they would have sub-Eddington accreting rates of ∼10−3 and BH masses 1-9 × 105 . We thus conclude that a population of intermediate-mass BHs exists in dwarf starburst galaxies, at least up to z = 1.5, though their detection beyond the local universe is challenging due to their low luminosity and mild obscuration unless deep surveys are employed.
We have analyzed the deep Chandra observation (∼155 ks) of the Compton thick active galactic nucleus ESO 428-G014, to study in detail the morphology of the diffuse X-ray emission in the inner ∼500 pc ...radius region. Comparing different X-ray energy bands we find localized differences in the absorbing column and in the emission processes. Collisional ionization may be prevalent in the area of most intense optical line emission (H and O iii). There is a good correspondence between optical line, radio continuum, and soft (<3 keV) X-ray features, consistent with simulations of jet-molecular disk interaction. At all energies >3 keV, the extended emission in the central 1 5 (170 pc) radius circumnuclear region amounts to ∼70%-30% of the contribution of a point source in that area (or ∼40%-25% of the total counts in the region). Within a 5″ radius, the contribution from extended emission overcomes that from a nuclear point source in the 3-4 keV band. This extended emission suggests scattering of nuclear photons by dense molecular clouds in the inner galactic disk of ESO 428-G014. Its presence may adversely bias the torus modeling of spectra from X-ray telescopes with inferior angular resolution compared to that of Chandra, such as NuSTAR and XMM-Newton.
We report the detection in Chandra Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer archival data of an elongated soft (<3 keV) X-ray feature to the south of the Compton-thick active galactic nucleus (AGN) galaxy ...IC 2497, coincident with the emission-line feature known as Hanny's Voorwerp. The data are consistent with the spatial correspondence between X-ray, optical emission-line, and radio features detected in nearby obscured AGNs (e.g., ESO 428-G014). The X-ray luminosity of the (0.3-3.0 keV) soft feature is ∼1.2 × 1040 erg s−1. We infer an O iii/soft-X-ray ratio in the range of ∼200, consistent with the highest values measured in some of the clouds of NGC 4151. Overall, given the uncertainties, Hanny's Voorwerp appears to be a feature consistent with the ionization cone emission of nearby AGNs. We estimate an X-ray recombination time of ∼2 × 107 yr, longer than the O iii recombination time (∼8000 yr). This suggests that extended soft X-ray components may be a better diagnostic of overall long-term activity, while detection of an O iii HV would point to a time-limited activity burst.
We present a study of the relation between X-rays and ultraviolet emission in quasars for a sample of broad-line, radio-quiet objects obtained from the cross-match of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey ...DR14 with the latest
Chandra
Source Catalog 2.0 (2332 quasars) and the
Chandra
COSMOS Legacy survey (273 quasars). The non-linear relation between the ultraviolet (at 2500 Å,
L
UV
) and the X-ray (at 2 keV,
L
X
) emission in quasars has been proved to be characterised by a smaller intrinsic dispersion than the observed one, as long as a homogeneous selection, aimed at preventing the inclusion of contaminants in the sample, is fulfilled. By leveraging on the low background of
Chandra
, we performed a complete spectral analysis of all the data available for the SDSS-CSC2.0 quasar sample (i.e. 3430 X-ray observations), with the main goal of reducing the uncertainties on the source properties (e.g. flux, spectral slope). We analysed whether any evolution of the
L
X
−
L
UV
relation exists by dividing the sample in narrow redshift intervals across the redshift range spanned by our sample,
z
≃ 0.5−4. We find that the slope of the relation does not evolve with redshift and it is consistent with the literature value of 0.6 over the explored redshift range, implying that the mechanism underlying the coupling of the accretion disc and hot corona is the same at the different cosmic epochs. We also find that the dispersion decreases when examining the highest redshifts, where only pointed observations are available. These results further confirm that quasars are ‘standardisable candles’, that is we can reliably measure cosmological distances at high redshifts where very few cosmological probes are available.
Abstract
Recent deep Chandra observations of nearby Compton-thick (CT) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have produced surprising results, uncovering extended emission not only in soft X-rays but also in ...hard emission (>3 keV), challenging the long-held belief that the characteristic hard X-ray continuum and fluorescent Fe K lines are associated with the torus in the standard picture of AGNs. In this work, we present an analysis of our deep (∼261 ks) X-ray Chandra ACIS-S observations of NGC 5728, a nearby (
z
= 0.00932) CT AGN. We find that the diffuse emission is more extended at lower energies, in the bicone direction out to ∼2 kpc radially, but also significantly extended in the direction of the cross-cone, out to ∼1.4 kpc. Our results suggest that the ratio of detected photons in the cross-cone to the bicone region is ∼16%, below 3 keV, decreasing to 5% for energies 3–6 keV. The nuclear spectrum suggests a low-photoionization phase mixed with a more ionized gas component, while the bicone and cross-cone spectra are dominated by a mix of photoionization and shocked gas emission. A mixture of thermal and photoionization models used to fit the spectra indicates the presence of complex gas interactions, consistent with previous observations of other CT AGNs (e.g., ESO 428-G014).
Abstract We present Chandra ACIS-S imaging spectroscopy results of the extended (1.″5–8″, 300–1600 pc) hard X-ray emission of NGC 5728, the host galaxy of a Compton-thick active galactic nucleus. We ...find spectrally and spatially resolved features in the Fe K α complex (5.0–7.5 keV) redward and blueward of the neutral Fe line at 6.4 keV in the extended narrow-line region bicone. A simple phenomenological fit of a power law plus Gaussians gives a significance of 5.4 σ and 3.7 σ for the red and blue wings, respectively. Fits to a suite of physically consistent models confirm a significance of ≥3 σ for the red wing. The significance of the blue wing may be diminished by the presence of rest-frame highly ionized Fe xxv and Fe xxvi lines (1.4 σ –3.7 σ range). A detailed investigation of the Chandra ACIS-S point-spread function and comparison with the observed morphology demonstrates that these red and blue wings are radially extended (∼5″, ∼1 kpc) along the optical bicone axis. If the wing emission is due solely to redshifted and blueshifted high-velocity neutral Fe K α , then the implied line-of-sight velocities are +/− ∼0.1 c , and their fluxes are consistent with being equal. A symmetric high-velocity outflow is then a viable explanation. This outflow has deprojected velocities ∼100 times larger than the outflows detected in optical spectroscopic studies, potentially dominating the kinetic feedback power.
Abstract
We report the analysis of the deep (∼270 ks) X-ray Chandra data of one of the most radio-loud, Seyfert 2 galaxies in the nearby universe (
z
= 0.01135), IC 5063. The alignment of the radio ...structure with the galactic disk and ionized bicone, enables us to study the effects of both radio jet and nuclear irradiation on the interstellar medium (ISM). The nuclear and bicone spectra suggest a low photoionization phase mixed with a more ionized or thermal gas component, while the cross-cone spectrum is dominated by shocked and collisionally ionized gas emission. The clumpy morphology of the soft (<3 keV) X-ray emission along the jet trails, and the large (≃2.4 kpc) filamentary structure perpendicular to the radio jets at softer energies (<1.5 keV), suggest a large contribution of the jet−ISM interaction to the circumnuclear gas emission. The hard X-ray continuum (>3 keV) and the Fe K
α
6.4 keV emission are both extended to kpc size along the bicone direction, suggesting an interaction of nuclear photons with dense clouds in the galaxy disk, as observed in other Compton Thick (CT) active nuclei. The northwest cone spectrum also exhibits an Fe
xxv
emission line, which appears spatially extended and spatially correlated with the most intense radio hot-spot, suggesting jet−ISM interaction.
We present a deep Chandra spectral and spatial study of the kpc-scale diffuse X-ray emission of the Compton-thick (CT) active galactic nucleus (AGN) ESO 428-G014. The entire spectrum is best fit with ...composite photoionization + thermal models. The diffuse emission is more extended at lower energies (<3 keV). The smaller extent of the hard continuum and Fe K profiles implies that the optically thicker clouds responsible for this scattering may be relatively more prevalent closer to the nucleus. These clouds must not prevent soft ionizing X-rays from the AGN escaping to larger radii, in order to have photoionized ISM at larger radii. This suggests that at smaller radii, there may be a larger population of molecular clouds to scatter the hard X-rays, as in the Milky Way. The diffuse emission is also significantly extended in the cross-cone direction, where the AGN emission would be mostly obscured by the torus in the standard AGN model. Our results suggest that the transmission of the obscuring region in the cross-cone direction is ∼10% of that in the cone direction. In the 0.3-1.5 keV band, the ratio of cross-cone to cone photons increases to ∼84%, suggesting an additional soft diffuse emission component disjoint from the AGN. This could be due to hot ISM trapped in the potential of the galaxy. The luminosity of this component, ∼5 × 1038 erg s−1, is roughly consistent with the thermal component suggested by the spectral fits in the 170-900 pc annulus.
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