THE GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE HARD EXCESS. II. ANALYSIS OF THE LOCAL POPULATION OF RADIO-QUIET AGNs
Journal Article
·
· Astrophysical Journal
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 662, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH (United Kingdom)
- Astrophysics Group, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG (United Kingdom)
Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) show evidence for reprocessing gas, outflowing from the accreting black hole. The combined effects of absorption and scattering from the circumnuclear material likely explain the “hard excess” of X-ray emission above 20 keV, compared with the extrapolation of spectra from lower X-ray energies. In a recent Suzaku study, we established that the ubiquitous hard excess in hard, X-ray-selected, radio-quiet type 1 AGNs is consistent with a reprocessing of the X-ray continuum in an ensemble of clouds, located tens to hundreds of gravitational radii from the nuclear black hole. Here we add hard X-ray-selected, type 2 AGNs to extend our original study and show that the gross X-ray spectral properties of the entire local population of radio-quiet AGNs may be described by a simple unified scheme. We find a broad, continuous distribution of spectral hardness ratio and Fe Kα equivalent width across all AGN types, which can be reproduced by varying the observer's sightline through a single, simple model cloud ensemble, provided that the radiative transfer through the model cloud distribution includes not only photoelectric absorption but also three-dimensional (3D) Compton scattering. Variation in other parameters of the cloud distribution, such as column density or ionization, should be expected between AGNs, but such variation is not required to explain the gross X-ray spectral properties.
- OSTI ID:
- 22521599
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 818; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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