The HELLAS2XMM Survey. VII. The Hard X-Ray Luminosity Function of AGNs up to z = 4: More Absorbed AGNs at Low Luminosities and High Redshifts

By F. Franca, Fabrizio Fiore, A. Comastri, G. Perola, N. Sacchi, M. Brusa, F. Cocchia, C. Feruglio, G. Matt, C. Vignali and 14 more. 2005

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We have determined the cosmological evolution of the density of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and of their NH distribution as a function of the unabsorbed 2-10 keV luminosity up to redshift 4. We used the HELLAS2XMM sample combined with other published catalogs, yielding a total of 508 AGNs. Our best fit is obtained with a luminosity-dependent density evolution (LDDE) model where low-luminosity (LX ~ 1043 ergs s-1) AGNs peak at z ~ 0.7, while high-luminosity AGNs (LX > 1045 ergs s-1) peak at z ~ 2.0. A pure luminosity evolution model (PLE) can instead be rejected. There is evidence that the fraction of absorbed (NH > 1022 cm-2) AGNs decreases with the intrinsic X-ray luminosity and increases with the redshift. Our best-fit solution provides a good fit to the observed counts, the cosmic X-ray background, and to the observed fraction of absorbed AGNs as a function of the flux in the 10-15 ergs cm-2 s-1 < S2-10 < 10-10 ergs cm-2 s-1 range. We find that the absorbed, high-luminosity (LX > 1044 ergs s-1) AGNs have a density of 267 deg-2 at fluxes S2-10 > 10-15 ergs cm-2 s-1. Using these results, we estimate a density of supermassive black holes in the local universe of ρBH = 3.2 h × 105 M☉ Mpc-3, which is consistent with the recent measurements of the black hole mass function in the local galaxies.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0824be7cbd30c9cbd097192d70419e6c625652f8

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An Observational Determination of the Bolometric Quasar Luminosity Function (2006, methodology): “As the opposite extreme, we employ the column density distribution determined in La Franca et al. (2005), which depends on both luminosity and redshift.”
The bolometric quasar luminosity function at z = 0–7 (2020, background): “…al. 1991; Boyle et al. 1993; Jones et al. 1997; Page et al. 1997; Miyaji et al. 2000; Hasinger et al. 2005), hard X-ray (e.g., Ueda et al. 2003; La Franca et al. 2005; Barger et al. 2005; Silverman et al. 2008; Ebrero et al. 2009; Yencho et al. 2009; Aird et al. 2010; Ueda et al. 2014; Aird et…”
OBSCURATION-DEPENDENT EVOLUTION OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (2015, background): “More controversially, it has been suggested that the obscured fraction increases out to high redshift (La Franca et al. 2005; Hasinger 2008; Brightman & Ueda 2012; Iwasawa et al. 2012; Vito et al. 2014; but see Ueda et al. 2003; Akylas et al. 2006; Ebrero et al. 2009).”
Fueling Low-Level AGN Activity through Stochastic Accretion of Cold Gas (2006, background): “…observations at the higher redshifts, and may be incomplete at the lowestMB & −18 luminosities, corresponding to or slightly below the faintest bins in even the deep luminosity functions of e.g. Ueda et al. (2003); Hasinger, Miyaji, & Schmidt (2005); La Franca et al. (2005) at low (z. 1) redshifts.”
CONSTRAINTS ON BLACK HOLE GROWTH, QUASAR LIFETIMES, AND EDDINGTON RATIO DISTRIBUTIONS FROM THE SDSS BROAD-LINE QUASAR BLACK HOLE MASS FUNCTION (2010, background): “…Shankar et al. 2004; Merloni & Heinz 2008), conclusions based on the quasar luminosity function (e.g., Steffen et al. 2003; Ueda et al. 2003; Croom et al. 2004; La Franca et al. 2005; Hasinger et al. 2005; Hopkins et al. 2007c; Silverman et al. 2008) and the local active BHMF (Heckman et al. 2004).”
THE EVOLUTION OF SWIFT/BAT BLAZARS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE MeV BACKGROUND (2009, background): “In this respect FSRQs evolve similarly to the population of X–ray selected, radio-quiet, AGNs (Ueda et al. 2003; Hasinger et al. 2005; La Franca et al. 2005).”
THREE-YEAR SWIFT–BAT SURVEY OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI: RECONCILING THEORY AND OBSERVATIONS? (2010, background): “For example, some studies (e.g., Ballantyne et al. 2006; Treister & Urry 2006; La Franca et al. 2005; Della Ceca et al. 2008; Winter et al. 2009a; Brusa et al. 2010) suggest that F% decreases with X-ray luminosity, while Dwelly & Page (2006) point to F% being independent of LX.”
The synthesis of the cosmic X-ray background in the Chandra and XMM-Newton era (2006, methodology): “While the total (including both type-1 and type-2 objects) AGN XLF obtained by Barger et al. (2005) is in good agreement with those measured by Ueda et al. (2003) and La Franca et al. (2005), their type-1 XLF appears to be in contrast with that measured by HMS05 especially at low luminosities.”
SELF-CONSISTENT MODELS OF THE AGN AND BLACK HOLE POPULATIONS: DUTY CYCLES, ACCRETION RATES, AND THE MEAN RADIATIVE EFFICIENCY (2007, background): “…Richards et al. 2005, 2006; Jiang et al. 2006; Cool et al. 2006; Bongiorno et al. 2007; Fontanot et al. 2007; Shankar & Mathur 2007) and X-ray surveys (Barger et al. 2003; Ueda et al. 2003; Barger & Cowie 2005; Barger et al. 2005; La Franca et al. 2005; Nandra et al. 2005; Silverman et al. 2008).”
TOWARD THE STANDARD POPULATION SYNTHESIS MODEL OF THE X-RAY BACKGROUND: EVOLUTION OF X-RAY LUMINOSITY AND ABSORPTION FUNCTIONS OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI INCLUDING COMPTON-THICK POPULATIONS (2014, methodology): “…et al. 1991; Boyle et al. 1993; Jones et al. 1997; Page et al. 1997; Miyaji et al. 2000; Hasinger et al. 2005) and the hard band above 2 keV (e.g., Ueda et al. 2003; La Franca et al. 2005; Barger et al. 2005; Silverman et al. 2008; Ebrero et al. 2009; Yencho et al. 2009; Aird et al. 2010).”
Cosmic X-ray surveys of distant active galaxies (2015, background): “7; e.g., Barger et al 2005; Hasinger et al 2005; La Franca et al 2005; Silverman et al 2008a; Ebrero et al 2009; Yencho et al 2009; Aird et al 2010; Ueda et al 2014).”
THE XMM-NEWTON WIDE-FIELD SURVEY IN THE COSMOS FIELD (XMM-COSMOS): DEMOGRAPHY AND MULTIWAVELENGTH PROPERTIES OF OBSCURED AND UNOBSCURED LUMINOUS ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (2010, background): “…is consistent with the finding, mainly from X–ray surveys, that absorption is much more common at low luminosities (see e.g. Ueda et al. 2003, la Franca et al. 2005, Maiolino et al. 2007, Hasinger 2008) and, possibly, at high redshift (La Franca et al. 2005; Ballantyne et al. 2006; Treister &…”
CHASING HIGHLY OBSCURED QSOs IN THE COSMOS FIELD (2008, methodology): “…population is large at low AGN luminosities and decreases at high luminosities, as it is indeed observed (Lawrence & Elvis 1982, Ueda et al. 2003, Steffen et al. 2003, La Franca et al. 2005, Treister & Urry 2005, 2006, Maiolino et al. 2007, Hasinger 2008, Trump et al. 2008, Della Ceca et al. 2008).”
Chandra and Spitzer Unveil Heavily Obscured Quasars in the Chandra/SWIRE Survey (2006, background): “There is evidence that the fraction of obscured AGNs decreases with higher intrinsic luminosities (Ueda et al. 2003; Szokoly et al. 2004; Barger et al. 2005; Treister & Urry 2005) and possibly increases with redshift (La Franca et al. 2005).”
The Blast Wave Model for AGN Feedback: Effects on AGN Obscuration (2008, methodology): “…3, we show the predicted distributions of the column densities of the absorbers for low-redshift (z 1) AGNs with different luminosities, and compare them with data from La Franca et al. (2005) and with predictions based on AGN synthesis models for the cosmic X-ray background (Gilli et al. 2007).”
The cosmic evolution of massive black holes in the Horizon-AGN simulation (2016, background): “The obscured fraction varies as a function of redshift and luminosity, and it is estimated to be ∼80 per cent at Lbol ∼ 1043 erg s−1 and between ∼10 and 80 at Lbol ∼ 1045 erg s−1, depending on redshift, according to X-ray studies (e.g. La Franca et al. 2005; Merloni et al. 2014; Ueda et al. 2014).”
THE CHANDRA COSMOS SURVEY. III. OPTICAL AND INFRARED IDENTIFICATION OF X-RAY POINT SOURCES (2012, background): “…and BH growth, as traced by quasar luminosity function (Hasinger et al. 2005, Silverman et al. 2008), peaks in the same redshift range (z=2-3), while the star-formation of lower mass galaxies peaks at z=1-1.5, as do lower-mass and lower-luminosity AGN (La Franca et al. 2005, Bongiorno et al. 2007).”
THE CHANDRA COSMOS LEGACY SURVEY: OPTICAL/IR IDENTIFICATIONS (2015, result): “This trend has been confirmed over the years by other works, e.g. La Franca et al. (2005), using HELLAS2XMM; Hasinger (2008), who divided the sample in unobscured and obscured sources on the basis of both the optical spectroscopic classification and X-ray absorption properties; Ueda et al. (2014),…”