No abstract

This paper investigates which constraints can be placed on the fraction of Compton-thick active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the Universe from modelling the spectrum of the diffuse X-ray background (XRB). We present a model for the synthesis of the XRB that uses as input a library of AGN X-ray spectra generated by Monte Carlo simulations. This is essential to account for the Compton scattering of X-ray photons in a dense medium and the impact of that process on the spectra of heavily obscured AGN. We identify a small number of input parameters to the XRB synthesis code that encapsulate the minimum level of uncertainty in reconstructing the XRB spectrum. These are the power-law index and high-energy cutoff of the intrinsic X-ray spectra of AGN, the level of the reflection component in AGN spectra, and the fraction of Compton-thick AGN in the Universe. We then map the volume of the space allowed to these parameters by current observational determinations of the XRB spectrum in the range 3−100 keV. One of the least-constrained parameters is the fraction of Compton-thick AGN. Statistically acceptable fits to the XRB spectrum at the 68% confidence level can be obtained for Compton-thick AGN fractions in the range 5−50%. This is because of degeneracies among input parameters to the XRB synthesis code and uncertainties in the modelling of AGN spectra (e.g. level of reflection fraction). The most promising route for constraining the fraction of Compton-thick AGN in the Universe is via the direct detection of those sources in high-energy ( > ∼ 10 keV) surveys. We show that the observed fraction of Compton-thick sources identified in the Swift/BAT serendipitous survey limits the intrinsic fraction of Compton-thick AGN, at least at low redshift, to 10−20% (68% confidence level). We also make predictions on the number density of Compton-thick sources that current and future X-ray missions are expected to discover. Testing those predictions with data will place tight constraints on the intrinsic fraction of Compton-thick AGN as a function of redshift.

We combine bright XMM-Newton data with the Chandra Deep Field South observations to explore the behavior of the intrinsic AGN absorption, as a function of redshift and luminosity. Our sample consists of 359 sources selected in the hard 2-8 keV band, spanning the flux range 6 × 10 −16 -3 × 10 −13 erg cm −2 s −1 with a high rate of spectroscopic or photometric redshift completeness (100 and 85 per cent respectively for the Chandra and XMM-Newton data). We derive the column density values using X-ray spectral fits. We find that the fraction of obscured AGN falls with increasing luminosity in agreement with previous findings. The fraction of obscured AGN shows an apparent increase at high redshifts (z > 2). Simulations show that this effect can most probably be attributed to the fact that at high redshifts the column densities are overestimated.

Models of galaxy evolution assume some connection between the AGN and star formation activity in galaxies. We use the multi-wavelength information of the CDFS to assess this issue. We select the AGNs from the 3 Ms XMM-Newton survey and measure the star-formation rates of their hosts using data that probe rest-frame wavelengths longward of 20 μm, predominantly from deep 100 μm and 160 μm Herschel observations, but also from Spitzer-MIPS-70 μm. Star-formation rates are obtained from spectral energy distribution fits, identifying and subtracting an AGN component. Our sample consists of sources in the z ≈ 0.5−4 redshift range, with star-formation rates SFR ≈ 10 1 −10 3 M yr −1 and stellar masses M ≈ 10 10 −10 11.5 M . We divide the star-formation rates by the stellar masses of the hosts to derive specific star-formation rates (sSFR) and find evidence for a positive correlation between the AGN activity (proxied by the X-ray luminosity) and the sSFR for the most active systems with X-ray luminosities exceeding L x 10 43 erg s −1 and redshifts z 1. We do not find evidence for such a correlation for lower luminosity systems or those at lower redshifts, consistent with previous studies. We do not find any correlation between the SFR (or the sSFR) and the X-ray absorption derived from high-quality XMM-Newton spectra either, showing that the absorption is likely to be linked to the nuclear region rather than the host, while the star-formation is not nuclear. Comparing the sSFR of the hosts to the characteristic sSFR of star-forming galaxies at the same redshift (the so-called "main sequence") we find that the AGNs reside mostly in main-sequence and starburst hosts, reflecting the AGN-sSFR connection; however the infrared selection might bias this result. Limiting our analysis to the highest X-ray luminosity AGNs (X-ray QSOs with L x > 10 44 erg s −1 ), we find that the highest-redshift QSOs (with z 2) reside predominantly in starburst hosts, with an average sSFR more than double that of the "main sequence", and we find a few cases of QSOs at z ≈ 1.5 with specific star-formation rates compatible with the mainsequence, or even in the "quiescent" region. Finally, we test the reliability of the colour-magnitude diagram (plotting the rest-frame optical colours against the stellar mass) in assessing host properties, and find a significant correlation between rest-frame colour (without any correction for AGN contribution or dust extinction) and sSFR excess relative to the "main sequence" at a given redshift. This means that the most "starbursty" objects have the bluest rest-frame colours.