THE OBSCURED FRACTION OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI IN THE XMM-COSMOS SURVEY: A SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION PERSPECTIVE
- Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, D-69117, Heidelberg (Germany)
- INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, I-40127 Bologna (Italy)
- Universidad de Concepción, Departamento de Astronomía,Casilla 160-C, Concepción (Chile)
- ETH Zurich Institute for Astronomy HIT, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, 8093 Zurich (Switzerland)
The fraction of active galactic nucleus (AGN) luminosity obscured by dust and re-emitted in the mid-IR is critical for understanding AGN evolution, unification, and parsec-scale AGN physics. For unobscured (Type 1) AGNs, where we have a direct view of the accretion disk, the dust covering factor can be measured by computing the ratio of re-processed mid-IR emission to intrinsic nuclear bolometric luminosity. We use this technique to estimate the obscured AGN fraction as a function of luminosity and redshift for 513 Type 1 AGNs from the XMM-COSMOS survey. The re-processed and intrinsic luminosities are computed by fitting the 18 band COSMOS photometry with a custom spectral energy distribution fitting code, which jointly models emission from hot dust in the AGN torus, from the accretion disk, and from the host galaxy. We find a relatively shallow decrease of the luminosity ratio as a function of L{sub bol}, which we interpret as a corresponding decrease in the obscured fraction. In the context of the receding torus model, where dust sublimation reduces the covering factor of more luminous AGNs, our measurements require a torus height that increases with luminosity as h ∝ L{sub bol}{sup 0.3-0.4}. Our obscured-fraction-luminosity relation agrees with determinations from Sloan Digital Sky Survey censuses of Type 1 and Type 2 quasars and favors a torus optically thin to mid-IR radiation. We find a much weaker dependence of the obscured fraction on 2-10 keV luminosity than previous determinations from X-ray surveys and argue that X-ray surveys miss a significant population of highly obscured Compton-thick AGNs. Our analysis shows no clear evidence for evolution of the obscured fraction with redshift.
- OSTI ID:
- 22270653
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 777, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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