Detailed SHAPE and evolutionary behavior of the X-ray luminosity function of active galactic nuclei

Journal Article · Sun May 10 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/804/2/104· OSTI ID:22883222

Miyaji, T. ^[1]; Hasinger, G. ^[2]; Salvato, M.; Brusa, M.; Brunner, H.; Merloni, A. ^[3]; Cappelluti, N.; Comastri, A.; Gilli, R.; Lanzuisi, G. ^[4]; Civano, F. ^[5]; Puccetti, S. ^[6]; Elvis, M. ^[7]; Fotopoulou, S. ^[8]; Ueda, Y. ^[9]; Griffiths, R. E. ^[10]; Koekemoer, A. M. ^[11]; Akiyama, M. ^[12]

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1. Instituto de Astronomía sede Ensenada, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Km. 103, Carret. Tijuana-Ensenada, Ensenada, BC 22860 (Mexico)
2. Institute for Astronomy, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States)
3. Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85748 Garching bei München (Germany)
4. INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, I-40127 Bologna (Italy)
5. Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, 260 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520 (United States)
6. ASI Science Data Center, via Galileo Galilei, I-00044, Frascati (Italy)
7. Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
8. University of Geneva, chemin d Ecogia 16, 1290 Versoix (Switzerland)
9. Department of Astronomy, Faculty of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwake-cho,Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502 (Japan)
10. Physics and Astronomy, STB-216, U. Hawaii at Hilo, Hilo, HI 96720 (United States)
11. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
12. Astronomical Institute, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8578 (Japan)

We construct the rest-frame 2–10 keV intrinsic X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) from a combination of X-ray surveys from the all-sky Swift BAT survey to the Chandra Deep Field South. We use ∼3200 AGNs in our analysis, which covers six orders of magnitude in flux. The inclusion of XMM and Chandra COSMOS data has allowed us to investigate the detailed behavior of the XLF and evolution. In deriving our XLF, we take into account realistic AGN spectrum templates, absorption corrections, and probability density distributions in photometric redshift. We present an analytical expression for the overall behavior of the XLF in terms of the luminosity-dependent density evolution, smoothed two-power-law expressions in 11 redshift shells, three-segment power-law expression of the number density evolution in four luminosity classes, and binned XLF. We observe a sudden flattening of the low luminosity end slope of the XLF slope at z ≳0.6. Detailed structures of the AGN downsizing have also been revealed, where the number density curves have two clear breaks at all luminosity classes above log L{sub X}>43. The two-break structure is suggestive of two-phase AGN evolution, consisting of major merger triggering and secular processes.

• OSTI ID: 22883222
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 804; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United Kingdom
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ABSORPTION
DENSITY
DISTRIBUTION
FUNCTIONS
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
GALAXY NUCLEI
KEV RANGE 01-10
LUMINOSITY
MASS
QUASARS
RED SHIFT
SPECTRA
UNIVERSE
X-RAY GALAXIES