Compton-thick AGNs in the NuSTAR Era

Marchesi, S.; Ajello, M.; Marcotulli, L.; Comastri, A.; Lanzuisi, G.; Vignali, C.

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aaa410

Cited by 84 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 69 publications

(108 reference statements)

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“…The background region is centered on (J2000) RA = 22:07:03.54 (331°45 53.00 ), decl. = +10:13:42.78 (10°13 42.78 ) with a radius of 10 .power-law photon index Γ = 1.9 (based on the NuS-TAR/XMM best fits,Marchesi et al 2018; and consistent with, e.g.,Risaliti et al 2000;Levenson et al 2006;Hernández-García et al 2015;Ricci et al 2015;Koss et al 2016), plus a gaussian emission line constrained to an energy range surrounding the Fe Kα 6.4 keV line, with constant galactic absorption (4.5 × 10 20 cm −2 ;Levenson et al 2006). This simple power-law plus line model is consistent with the model components utilized in previous spectral fits of NGC 7212 (e.g., ASCA,Risaliti et al 2000; XMM, Guainazzi et al 2005;Hernández-García et al 2015; CXC, Levenson et al 2006;Hernández-García et al 2015; NuSTAR, Koss et al 2016;Marchesi et al 2018), for which the median photon index is Γ ∼ 1.9 and the median equivalent width of the Fe Kα line is EW ∼ 0.8 keV.…”

supporting

confidence: 57%

“…The origin of the diffuse emission is likely ionizing radiation from the active nucleus, e.g., from the corona, propagating to large scales via interactions with the interstellar medium (ISM). Georgantopoulos & Akylas (2019) fit a torus model to NuSTAR observations of NGC 7212 using MYTorus 16 and found the best-fit parameters N H = 1.1 × 10 24 cm −2 (consistent with Marchesi et al 2018), E cut > 56, kT = 41 keV.…”

Section: Radial Profiles and Fwhmmentioning

confidence: 77%

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Chandra Observations of NGC 7212: Large-scale Extended Hard X-Ray Emission

Jones

Fabbiano

Elvis

et al. 2020

ApJ

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Recent observations of nearby Compton thick (CT) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with Chandra have resolved hard (> 3 keV) X-ray emission extending out from the central supermassive black hole to kiloparsec scales, challenging the long-held belief that the characteristic hard X-ray continuum and fluorescent Fe K lines originate in the inner ∼parsec due to the excitation of obscuring material. In this paper we present the results of the most recent Chandra ACIS-S observations of NGC 7212, a CT AGN in a compact group of interacting galaxies, with a total effective exposure of ∼150 ks. We find ∼20% of the observed emission is found outside of the central kiloparsec, with ∼17% associated with the soft X-rays, and ∼3% with hard X-ray continuum and Fe K line. This emission is extended both along the ionization cone and in the cross-cone direction up to ∼3.8 kpc scales. The spectrum of NGC 7212 is best represented by a mixture of thermal and photoionization models that indicate the presence of complex gas interactions. These observations are consistent with what is observed in other CT AGN (e.g., ESO 428−G014, NGC 1068), providing further evidence that this may be a common phenomenon. High-resolution observations of extended CT AGN provide an especially valuable environment for understanding how AGN feedback impacts host galaxies on galactic scales.

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supporting

confidence: 57%

Section: Radial Profiles and Fwhmmentioning

confidence: 77%

Chandra Observations of NGC 7212: Large-scale Extended Hard X-Ray Emission

Jones

Fabbiano

Elvis

et al. 2020

ApJ

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“…The only two spectral bands where the obscuring material is optically thin up to high column densities are the hard X-rays ( 15 keV) and the mid-infrared (5 − 50 µm). Thanks to its unprecedented sensitivity covering the 3−79 keV band, NuS-TAR is playing a key role in identifying the missing fraction of CTAGN and determining their properties (e.g., Koss et al 2016;Marchesi et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Hard Look at NGC 5347: Revealing a Nearby Compton-thick AGN

Kammoun

Miller

Zoghbi

et al. 2019

ApJ

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Current measurements show that the observed fraction of Compton-thick (CT) AGN is smaller than the expected values needed to explain the cosmic X-ray background. Prior fits to the X-ray spectrum of the nearby Seyfert-2 galaxy NGC 5347 (z = 0.00792, D = 35.5 Mpc) have alternately suggested a CT and Compton-thin source. Combining archival data from Suzaku, Chandra, and -most importantly -new data from NuSTAR, and using three distinct families of models, we show that NGC 5347 is an obscured CTAGN (N H > 2.23×10 24 cm −2 ). Its 2-30 keV spectrum is dominated by reprocessed emission from distant material, characterized by a strong Fe Kα line and a Compton hump. We found a large equivalent width of the Fe Kα line (EW = 2.3 ± 0.3 keV) and a high intrinsic-to-observed flux ratio (∼ 100). All of these observations are typical for bona fide CTAGN. We estimate a bolometric luminosity of L bol 0.014 ± 0.005 L Edd. . The Chandra image of NGC 5347 reveals the presence of extended emission dominating the soft X-ray spectrum (E < 2 keV), which coincides with the [O III] emission detected in Hubble Space Telescope images. Comparison to other CTAGN suggests that NGC 5347 is broadly consistent with the average properties of this source class. We simulated XRISM and Athena/X-IFU spectra of the source, showing the potential of these future missions in identifying CTAGN in the soft X-rays.

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“…This may potentially add possibly non-negligible systematic uncertainties to the statistical ones. Interestingly, Marchesi et al (2018) analyzing 30 local candidate CT AGN selected from the Swift/BAT 100 month survey, found that the addition of NuSTAR data allowed a re-classification of ∼40% of the sources as Comptonthin. Source variability may furthermore play a role, because these surveys have gathered data over timescales of years (e.g., Lanzuisi et al 2014).…”

Section: Sifting Through Candidate Ct Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The NuSTAR Extragalactic Surveys: X-Ray Spectroscopic Analysis of the Bright Hard-band Selected Sample

Zappacosta

Comastri

Civano

et al. 2018

ApJ

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We discuss the spectral analysis of a sample of 63 active galactic nuclei (AGN) detected above a limiting flux of S 8 24 keV 7 10 14 =´-( -) erg s cm 1 2 --in the multi-tiered NuSTAR extragalactic survey program. The sources span a redshift range z 0 2.1 = -(median z 0.58 á ñ = ). The spectral analysis is performed over the broad 0.5-24keV energy range, combining NuSTAR with Chandra and/or XMM-Newton data and employing empirical and physically motivated models. This constitutes the largest sample of AGN selected at 10 keV > to be homogeneously spectrally analyzed at these flux levels. We study the distribution of spectral parameters such as photon index, column density (N H ), reflection parameter (R), and 10-40keV luminosity (L X ). Heavily obscured ( N log cm 23AGN constitute ∼25% (15-17 sources) and ∼2-3% (1-2 sources) of the sample, respectively. The observed N H distribution agrees fairly well with predictions of cosmic X-ray background population-synthesis models (CXBPSM). We estimate the intrinsic fraction of AGN as a function of N H , accounting for the bias against obscured AGN in a flux-selected sample. The fraction of CT AGN relative to N log cm 20 24AGN is poorly constrained, formally in the range 2-56% (90% upper limit of 66%). We derived a fraction ( f abs ) of obscured AGN ( N log cm 22 24as a function of L X in agreement with CXBPSM and previous z 1 < X-ray determinations. Furthermore, f abs at z 0.1 0.5 = -and L log erg s 43.6 44.3agrees with observational measurements/trends obtained over larger redshift intervals. We report a significant anti-correlation of R with L X (confirmed by our companion paper on stacked spectra) with considerable scatter around the median R values.

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Compton-thick AGNs in the NuSTAR Era

Cited by 84 publications

References 69 publications

Chandra Observations of NGC 7212: Large-scale Extended Hard X-Ray Emission

Chandra Observations of NGC 7212: Large-scale Extended Hard X-Ray Emission

A Hard Look at NGC 5347: Revealing a Nearby Compton-thick AGN

The NuSTAR Extragalactic Surveys: X-Ray Spectroscopic Analysis of the Bright Hard-band Selected Sample

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