A New Physical Picture for Active Galactic Nuclei Lacking Optical Emission Lines

Agostino, Christopher J.; Salim, Samir; Ellison, Sara L.; Bickley, Robert W.; Faber, S. M.

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acac99

Cited by 6 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 101 publications

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“…The notable exception is NSA 631492, which is the lowest-mass, lowest X-ray luminosity object in the sample. Agostino et al (2023) found that LINER-type galaxies have excess X-ray emission across broad 0.5-10 keV for their SFR compared to normal non-AGN galaxies. They separated their X-ray AGN candidates as those having X-ray luminosities more than 0.6 dex above the X-ray luminosity predicted from their SFR.…”

Section: Origin Of X-ray Emissionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Though X-rays are not immune from obscuration effects, X-ray observations have been well utilized to identify and study the properties of active galaxies (i.e., see Brandt & Hasinger 2005 and references therein). Sufficiently bright X-ray emission is often used to confirm the presence of AGN in systems lacking other AGN indicators (e.g., Birchall et al 2020;Agostino et al 2023;Messick et al 2023, submitted). Agostino et al (2023) studied local type 2 AGN selected by X-ray emission that lacked apparent optical emission lines.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sufficiently bright X-ray emission is often used to confirm the presence of AGN in systems lacking other AGN indicators (e.g., Birchall et al 2020;Agostino et al 2023;Messick et al 2023, submitted). Agostino et al (2023) studied local type 2 AGN selected by X-ray emission that lacked apparent optical emission lines. Even when 25% of their sample spectra was absorption linedominated, they found measurable [O III] emission in their total sample.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They found a correlation with the specific star formation rate (SFR) and the [O III] luminosity of these X-ray AGN. Agostino et al (2023) claimed that less-luminous [O III] galaxies contribute to the scatter of their [O III]-to-X-ray luminosity relation. This scatter is proposed to be from gas content differences of the narrowline region.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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X-Ray Emission of Ultraviolet Variable Active Galactic Nucleus Candidates

Baldassare

2023

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We analyze the X-ray properties of a sample of 23 high-probability active galactic nucleus (AGN) candidates with ultraviolet variability identified in Wasleske et al. Using data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton Observatory, we that find 11/23 nuclei are X-ray detected. We use spectral energy distribution modeling to compute star formation rates and show that the X-ray luminosities are typically in excess of the X-ray emission expected from star formation by at least an order of magnitude. Interestingly, this sample shows a diversity of optical spectroscopic properties. We explore possible reasons for why some objects lack optical spectroscopic signatures of black hole activity while still being UV-variable and X-ray bright. We find that host galaxy stellar emission and obscuration from gas and dust are potential factors. We study where this sample falls on relationships such as α OX − L 2500 and L X − L IR and find that some of the sample falls outside the typical scatter for these relations, indicating that they differ from the standard quasar population. With the diversity of optical spectroscopic signatures and varying impacts of dust and stellar emissions on our sample, these results emphasize the strength of variability in selecting the most complete set of AGN, regardless of other host galaxy properties.

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Section: Origin Of X-ray Emissionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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X-Ray Emission of Ultraviolet Variable Active Galactic Nucleus Candidates

Baldassare

2023

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“…Thus, the absence of narrow [O III] emission in the hyperluminous quasar J0100+2802 could point toward evolutionary effects in the quasar spectra and might be a sign that the narrow-line region (NLR) around the quasar has already been cleared by strong quasar-driven winds on a relatively short timescale (Vietri et al 2018;Coatman et al 2019). Alternatively, it has been suggested recently that underluminous [O III] emission in quasar spectra might be linked to a low gas content in the NLR of the quasar (Agostino et al 2023). Upcoming additional rest-frame optical spectra of high-redshift quasars observed with JWST will be required to shed more light on the evolution of the NLR at high redshifts.…”

Section: Equivalent Width Of the Quasar's [O Iii] Emissionmentioning

confidence: 99%

EIGER. III. JWST/NIRCam Observations of the Ultraluminous High-redshift Quasar J0100+2802

Eilers

Simcoe

Yue

et al. 2023

ApJ

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We present the first rest-frame optical spectrum of a high-redshift quasar observed with JWST/NIRCam in Wide Field Slitless mode. The observed quasar, J0100+2802, is the most luminous quasar known at z > 6. We measure the mass of the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) by means of the rest-frame optical H β emission line, and find consistent mass measurements of the quasar’s SMBH of M • ≈ 1010 M ☉ when compared to the estimates based on the properties of rest-frame UV emission lines C iv and Mg ii, which are accessible from ground-based observatories. To this end, we also present a newly reduced rest-frame UV spectrum of the quasar observed with X-Shooter/Very Large Telescope (VLT) and FIRE/Magellan for a total of 16.8 hr. We readdress the question whether this ultraluminous quasar could be effected by strong gravitational lensing making use of the diffraction limited NIRCam images in three different wide band filters (F115W, F200W, F356W), which improves the achieved spatial resolution compared to previous images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope by a factor of 2. We do not find any evidence for a foreground deflecting galaxy, nor for multiple images of the quasar, and determine the probability for magnification due to strong gravitational lensing with image separations below the diffraction limit of Δθ ≲ 0.″05 to be ≲2.2 × 10−3. Our observations therefore confirm that this quasar hosts a 10 billion solar mass black hole less than 1 Gyr after the Big Bang, which is challenging to explain with current black hole formation models.

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The most luminous blue quasars at 3.0 < z < 3.3

Trefoloni¹,

Lusso²,

Nardini³

et al. 2023

A&A

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We present the analysis of the rest frame ultraviolet and optical spectra of 30 bright blue quasars at z ∼ 3, selected to examine the suitability of active galactic nuclei as cosmological probes. In our previous works, based on pointed XMM-Newton observations, we found an unexpectedly high fraction (≈25%) of X-ray weak quasars in the sample. The latter sources also display a flatter UV continuum and a broader and fainter C IV profile in the archival UV data with respect to their X-ray normal counterparts. Here we present new observations with the Large Binocular Telescope in both the zJ (covering the rest frame ≃2300–3100 Å) and the KS (≃4750–5350 Å) bands. We estimated black hole masses (MBH) and Eddington ratios (λEdd) from the available rest frame optical and UV emission lines (Hβ, Mg II), finding that our z ∼ 3 quasars are on average highly accreting (⟨λEdd⟩≃1.2 and ⟨MBH⟩≃109.7 M⊙), with no difference in λEdd or MBH between X-ray weak and X-ray normal quasars. From the zJ spectra, we derived the properties (e.g. flux, equivalent width) of the main emission lines (Mg II, Fe II), finding that X-ray weak quasars display higher Fe II/Mg II ratios with respect to typical quasars. Fe II/Mg II ratios of X-ray normal quasars are instead consistent with other estimates up to z ≃ 6.5, corroborating the idea of already chemically mature broad line regions at early cosmic time. From the KS spectra, we find that all the X-ray weak quasars present generally weaker [O III] emission (EW < 10 Å) than the normal ones. The sample as a whole, however, abides by the known X-ray-[O III] luminosity correlation, hence the different [O III] properties are likely due to an intrinsically weaker [O III] emission in X-ray weak objects, associated to the shape of the spectral energy distribution. We interpret these results in the framework of accretion-disc winds.

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A New Physical Picture for Active Galactic Nuclei Lacking Optical Emission Lines

Cited by 6 publications

References 101 publications

X-Ray Emission of Ultraviolet Variable Active Galactic Nucleus Candidates

X-Ray Emission of Ultraviolet Variable Active Galactic Nucleus Candidates

EIGER. III. JWST/NIRCam Observations of the Ultraluminous High-redshift Quasar J0100+2802

The most luminous blue quasars at 3.0 < z < 3.3

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