THE SPACE DENSITY OF COMPTON-THICK ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS AND THE X-RAY BACKGROUND

By E. Treister, C. Urry, S. Virani. 2009

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We constrain the number density and evolution of Compton-thick (CT) active galactic nuclei (AGNs). In the local universe, we use the wide-area surveys from the Swift and INTEGRAL satellites, while for high redshifts we explore candidate selections based on a combination of X-ray and mid-infrared (mid-IR) parameters. We find a significantly lower space density of CT AGNs in the local universe than expected from published AGN population synthesis models to explain the X-ray background (XRB). This can be explained by the numerous degeneracies in the parameters of those models; we use the high-energy surveys described here to remove those degeneracies. We show that only direct observations of CT AGNs can currently constrain the number of heavily obscured supermassive black holes. At high redshift, the inclusion of IR-selected CT AGN candidates leads to a much higher space density, implying (1) a different (steeper) evolution for these sources compared to less-obscured AGNs, (2) that the IR selection includes a large number of interlopers, and/or (3) that there is a large number of reflection-dominated AGNs missed in the INTEGRAL and Swift observations. The contribution of CT AGN to the XRB is small, ∼9%, with a comparable contribution to the total cosmic accretion, unless reflection-dominated CT AGNs significantly outnumber transmission-dominated CT AGNs, in which case their contribution can be much higher. Using estimates derived here for the accretion luminosity over cosmic time, we estimate the local mass density in supermassive black holes and find a good agreement with available constraints for an accretion efficiency of ∼10%. Transmission-dominated CT AGNs contribute only ∼8% to total black hole growth.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/145b29d0822f6e570903ce09fbe95a71e9c41461

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An XMM–Newton spectral survey of 12 μm selected galaxies – I. X-ray data (2010, background): “Treister et al. (2009) claim that the observed differences between observation and models is due to degeneracies in the parameters of the models, and that only direct observations of Compton thick AGN can determine their relative number.”
HST WFC3/IR OBSERVATIONS OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS HOST GALAXIES AT z ∼ 2: SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES GROW IN DISK GALAXIES (2010, methodology): “Using the X-ray luminosity function of Ueda et al. (2003) and evolution, obscuration distribution and bolometric correction as described by Treister et al. (2009b), we estimate the black hole growth in this population in the z = 1.5−3 range spanned by our sample represents 10–17% of the total black…”
BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey. I. Spectral Measurements, Derived Quantities, and AGN Demographics (2017, background): “…Kyoto 606-8502, Japan 15 Atmospheric and Environmental Research, 131 Hartwell Ave No. 4, Lexington, MA 02421, USA 16 Ambizione fellow 17 Zwicky fellow 18 Deceased cosmic X-ray background (CXB) spectrum (e.g., Comastri et al. 1995; Treister et al. 2009; Draper & Ballantyne 2010; Ueda et al. 2014).”
Tracing the cosmic growth of supermassive black holes to z ∼ 3 with Herschel (2014, background): “…redshift is suggested by some analyses (La Franca et al. 2005; Treister & Urry 2006; Ballantyne et al. 2006; Hasinger 2008; Della Ceca et al. 2008: Treister et al. 2009; Iwasawa et al. 2012); on the other hand, the space density of the obscured (log[NH/cm−2] > 22) AGN population seems to be…”
The bolometric quasar luminosity function at z = 0–7 (2020, methodology): “In the bottom panel of Figure 3, we show the NH distribution at log LX = 43.5, z = 0.05 comparing different models (Ueda et al. 2003; Gilli et al. 2007; Treister et al. 2009; Ueda et al. 2014; Aird et al. 2015a).”
PS1-10jh: THE DISRUPTION OF A MAIN-SEQUENCE STAR OF NEAR-SOLAR COMPOSITION (2013, background): “…2012): Compton-thick (i.e. non-thermal) AGN, which are obscured by ∼1024 cm2 of column and thus making them optically thick to Compton scattering (Treister et al. 2009), and thermal AGN, which have column densities significantly less than this value, enabling the black hole’s emission to be…”
THE 22 MONTH SWIFT-BAT ALL-SKY HARD X-RAY SURVEY (2009, background): “…of the spectrum of the diffuse hard X-ray background ascribed to unresolved sources (Gilli et al. 2007), but such objects have not been found in the necessary numbers, prompting questions as to the composition and evolution of a population of AGN that could explain its form (Treister et al. 2009).”
THE SDSS-III BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY: THE QUASAR LUMINOSITY FUNCTION FROM DATA RELEASE NINE (2012, background): “…et al. 2012), mid-infrared (Brown et al. 2006; Siana et al. 2008; Assef et al. 2011) and the soft and hard X-ray (Cowie et al. 2003; Ueda et al. 2003; Hasinger et al. 2005; Barger et al. 2005; Silverman et al. 2005, 2008; Aird et al. 2008; Treister et al. 2009; Aird et al. 2010; Fiore et al. 2012).”
GALAXY ZOO: THE FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT CO-EVOLUTION OF SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES AND THEIR EARLY- AND LATE-TYPE HOST GALAXIES (2010, background): “However, current surveys of the hard X-ray sky remain too shallow or are confined to small areas compared to SDSS (e.g., Tueller et al. 2008; Winter et al. 2008; Treister et al. 2009a).”
BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey. V. X-Ray Properties of the Swift/BAT 70-month AGN Catalog (2017, background): “…obscured AGN contribute significantly to the CXB. Synthesis models of the CXB (e.g., Ueda et al. 2003, 2014, Gilli et al. 2007, Treister & Urry 2005; Treister et al. 2009, Draper & Ballantyne 2010, Akylas et al. 2012) have shown that a fraction of 10−30% of Compton-thick [CT, log(NH/cm −2) ≥ 24]…”
THE CHANDRA DEEP FIELD-SOUTH SURVEY: 4 Ms SOURCE CATALOGS (2008, background): “…(2004), Szokoly et al. (2004), Zheng et al. (2004), Mignoli et al. (2005), Ravikumar et al. (2007), Vanzella et al. (2008), Popesso et al. (2009), Treister et al. (2009)44, Balestra 42 The AB magnitudes for the radio counterparts were convertedf om the radio flux densities,m(AB) = −2.5 log(fν )…”
ON THE UNIFICATION OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (2012, background): “All previous findings involving unification statistics, including the synthesis of the cosmic X-ray background (e.g., Gilli et al. 2007; Treister et al. 2009), therefore need a critical reexamination and revision.”
A CORRELATION BETWEEN STAR FORMATION RATE AND AVERAGE BLACK HOLE ACCRETION IN STAR-FORMING GALAXIES (2013, background): “In addition, the average BHAR might be underestimated due to non-detections of a substantial population of heavily obscured AGNs, which can be responsible for as much as 50% of SMBH growth (e.g. Gilli et al. 2007; Treister et al. 2009; Mullaney et al. 2012b).”
OBSCURATION-DEPENDENT EVOLUTION OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (2015, background): “Results on the Compton-thick fraction from studies of the cosmic X-ray background have varied between 9% (Treister et al. 2009), 45%-30% (Gilli et al. 2007, luminosity-dependent) and 28%-60% (Ueda et al. 2014, not constrained), while Shi et al. (2013) reported 38%.”
The physics of galactic winds driven by active galactic nuclei (2012, background): “Note that the implied column density NH ∼ Rsn̄H ∼ 1022 cm−3 is relatively modest, especially if we consider the column before feedback provided by the wind exposes the AGN (e.g., Risaliti et al. 1999; Treister et al. 2009).”
Observational evidence for intermediate-mass black holes (2017, background): “…be explained by a low BH occupation fraction, by smaller BHs predicted by the MBH −M∗ relation (Reines & Volonteri 2015; Volonteri & Reines 2016) than by the MBH −Mbulge relations, or by heavy obscuration (e.g., Gilli et al. 2007; Fiore et al. 2009; Treister et al. 2009; Cappelluti et al. 2017).”
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): “Ballantyne et al. (2006) and Treister et al. (2009) take intoaccount the evolution of the absorption fraction.”
THE 4 Ms CHANDRA DEEP FIELD-SOUTH NUMBER COUNTS APPORTIONED BY SOURCE CLASS: PERVASIVE ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI AND THE ASCENT OF NORMAL GALAXIES (2012, methodology): “Using the unresolved hard X-ray (≈3–100 keV) background intensity spectrum as a constraint on the obscured (NH ≈ 1022–1024 cm−2) and Compton-thick (NH >∼ 1024 cm−2) AGN populations, Gilli et al. (2007; hereafter, G07) used the observed X-ray luminosity function evolution from Hasinger et al. (2005),”