The nuclear and extended mid-infrared emission of Seyfert galaxies

García-Bernete, I.; Almeida, C. Ramos; Acosta–Pulido, J. A.; Alonso‐Herrero, A.; González‐Martín, O.; Hernán-Caballero, A.; Pereira-Santaella, M.; Levenson, N. A.; Packham, C.; Perlman, Eric S.; Ichikawa, Kohei; Esquej, P.; Díaz-Santos, T.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stw2125

Cited by 29 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…On the other hand, dust in the central region of AGN reprocesses some fraction of these high-energy photons, which are then re-emitted in the IR. For this reason, the MIR-X-ray correlation has been widely studied for different types of AGN at various MIR wavelengths (∼6 to 25 µm; see García-Bernete et al 2016, and references therein). However, to date there have been no detailed studies across the entire IR spectral range, and in relation to a set of X-ray bands defined from 3 to 80 keV.…”

Section: T H E C O R R E L At I O N S P E C T Ru M T E C H N I Q U E mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to limitations in the library, we cannot expand the spectral decomposition beyond 22 µm. A detailed description of the method is given in Hernán-Caballero et al (2015), which we already tested in García-Bernete et al (2016).…”

Section: A P P E N D I X a : S P E C T R A L D E C O M P O S I T I O Nmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The [O IV] emission line has proved to be a reliable AGN tracer (see e.g. García-Bernete et al 2016, and references therein), which correlates well with both the hard X-rays (Meléndez et al 2008a;Rigby, DiamondStanic & Aniano 2009;Diamond-Stanic, Rieke & Rigby 2009) and the soft X-rays (Prieto, Pérez García & Rodríguez Espinosa 2002). Another AGN tracer commonly used is the [S IV]λ10.51 µm line (IP ∼ 35 eV; Dasyra et al 2011).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Although the MIR-X-ray correlation has been extensively studied in the literature (Krabbe, Böker & Maiolino 2001;Prieto et al 2002;Lutz et al 2004;Ramos Almeida et al 2007;Horst et al 2008;Fiore et al 2009;Gandhi et al 2009;Levenson et al 2009;Ichikawa et al 2012;Mason et al 2012;Matsuta et al 2012;Sazonov et al 2012;Asmus et al 2015;Mateos et al 2015;García-Bernete et al 2016;Ichikawa et al 2017;Chen et al 2017), to date there have been no detailed studies using the entire NIR-to-MIR range and selected X-ray bands from 3 to 80 keV. The aim of this work is to investigate this correlation for a sample of 24 nearby unobscured type 1 AGN using new X-ray data obtained with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR; Harrison et al 2013) together with archival IR data.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The infrared to X-ray correlation spectra of unobscured type 1 active galactic nuclei

García-Bernete¹,

Almeida²,

Landt³

et al. 2017

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Citation for published item:qr¡ %EferneteD sF nd mos elmeidD gF nd vndtD rF nd rdD wF tF nd flokovi¡ D wF nd eostEulidoD tF eF @PHIUA 9he infrred to Ery orreltion spetr of unosured type I tive glti nuleiF9D wonthly noties of the oyl estronomil oietyFD RTW @IAF ppF IIHEIPTF Further information on publisher's website: Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. ABSTRACTWe use new X-ray data obtained with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), near-infrared (NIR) fluxes and mid-infrared (MIR) spectra of a sample of 24 unobscured type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGN) to study the correlation between various hard X-ray bands between 3 and 80 keV and the infrared (IR) emission. The IR to X-ray correlation spectrum (IRXCS) shows a maximum at ∼15-20 µm, coincident with the peak of the AGN contribution to the MIR spectra of the majority of the sample. There is also an NIR correlation peak at ∼2 µm, which we associate with the NIR bump observed in some type 1 AGN at ∼1-5 µm and is likely produced by nuclear hot dust emission. The IRXCS shows practically the same behaviour in all the X-ray bands considered, indicating a common origin for all of them. We finally evaluated correlations between the X-ray luminosities and various MIR emission lines. All the lines show a good correlation with the hard X-rays (ρ ≥ 0.7), but we do not find the expected correlation between their ionization potentials and the strength of the IRXCS.

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Section: T H E C O R R E L At I O N S P E C T Ru M T E C H N I Q U E mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A P P E N D I X a : S P E C T R A L D E C O M P O S I T I O Nmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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The infrared to X-ray correlation spectra of unobscured type 1 active galactic nuclei

García-Bernete¹,

Almeida²,

Landt³

et al. 2017

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…Recent studies reported good fits to the nuclear IR SED of nearby AGNs assuming a clumpy distribution of dust surrounding the central engine (e.g., Mason et al 2006Mason et al , 2009Nikutta, Elitzur, & Lacy 2009;Ramos Almeida et al 2009; hereafter RA09; Ramos Almeida et al 2011b; hereafter RA11; Hönig et al 2010;Alonso-Herrero et al 2011;hereafter AH11;Sales et al 2011;Lira et al 2013;Ichikawa et al 2015;García-Bernete et al 2015;Siebenmorgen, Heymann, & Efstathiou 2015;Fuller et al 2016;Audibert et al 2017;García-González et al 2017). Although the torus properties of nearby Seyfert galaxies have been extensively studied in the literature, to date there have been no studies based on an ultra-hard X-ray (14-195 keV) selected sample of these galaxies using high angular resolution IR data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Torus model properties of an ultra-hard X-ray selected sample of Seyfert galaxies

García-Bernete

Almeida

Alonso‐Herrero

et al. 2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We characterize for the first time the torus properties of an ultra-hard X-ray (14-195 keV) volume-limited (D L <40 Mpc) sample of 24 Seyfert (Sy) galaxies (BCS 40 sample). The sample was selected from the Swift/BAT nine month catalog. We use high angular resolution nuclear infrared (IR) photometry and N-band spectroscopy, the CLUMPY torus models and a Bayesian tool to characterize the properties of the nuclear dust. In the case of the Sy1s we estimate the accretion disk contribution to the subarcsecond resolution nuclear IR SEDs (∼0.4 ′′ ) which is, on average, 46±28, 23±13 and 11±5% in the J-, H-and K-bands, respectively. This indicates that the accretion disk templates that assume a steep fall for longer wavelengths than 1 µm might underestimate its contribution to the near-IR emission. Using both optical (broad vs narrow lines) and X-ray (unabsorbed vs absorbed) classifications, we compare the global posterior distribution of the torus model parameters. We confirm that Sy2s have larger values of the torus covering factor (C T ∼0.95) than Sy1s (C T ∼0.65) in our volumelimited Seyfert sample. These findings are independent of whether we use an optical or X-ray classification. We find that the torus covering factor remains essentially constant within the errors in our luminosity range and there is no clear dependence with the Eddington ratio. Finally, we find tentative evidence that even an ultra hard X-ray selection is missing a significant fraction of highly absorbed type 2 sources with very high covering factor tori.

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The role of SPICA-like missions and the Origins Space Telescope in the quest for heavily obscured AGN and synergies with Athena

Barchiesi

Pozzi

Vignali

et al. 2021

Publ. Astron. Soc. Aust.

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In the black hole (BH)–galaxy co-evolution framework, most of the star formation (SF) and the BH accretion are expected to take place in highly obscured conditions. The large amount of gas and dust absorbs most of the UV-to-soft-X radiation and re-emits it at longer wavelengths, mostly in the IR. Thus, obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) are very difficult to identify in optical or X-ray bands but shine bright in the IR. Moreover, X-ray background (XRB) synthesis models predict that a large fraction of the yet-unresolved XRB is due to the most obscured (Compton thick, CT: N $_{\text{H}}\ge 10^{24} \,\mathrm{cm}^{-2}$ ) of these AGN. In this work, we investigate the synergies between putative IR missions [using SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA), proposed for European Space Agency (ESA)/M5 but withdrawn in 2020 October, and Origins Space Telescope, OST, as ‘templates’] and the X-ray mission Athena (Advanced Telescope for High ENergy Astrophysics), which should fly in early 2030s, in detecting and characterising AGN, with a particular focus on the most obscured ones. Using an XRB synthesis model, we estimated the number of AGN and the number of those which will be detected in the X-rays by Athena. For each AGN, we associated an optical-to-Far InfraRed (FIR) spectral energy distribution (SED) from observed AGN with both X-ray data and SED decomposition and used these SEDs to check if the AGN will be detected by SPICA-like or OST at IR wavelengths. We expect that, with the deepest Athena and SPICA-like (or OST) surveys, we will be able to photometrically detect in the IR more than 90% of all the AGN (down to $L_{2-10\text{keV}} \sim 10^{42}\,\mathrm{erg\ s}^{-1}$ and up to $z \sim 10$ ) predicted by XRB synthesis modeling, and we will detect at least half of them in the X-rays. The spectroscopic capabilities of the OST can provide ${\approx}51\,000$ and ${\approx}3\,400$ AGN spectra with $R= 300$ at 25–588 $\unicode[Times]{x03BC}$ m in the wide and deep surveys, respectively, the last one up to $z\approx 4$ . Athena will be extremely powerful in detecting and discerning moderate- and high-luminosity AGN, allowing us to properly select AGN even when the mid-IR torus emission is ‘hidden’ by the host galaxy contribution. We will constrain the intrinsic luminosity and the amount of obscuration for $\sim\!20\%$ of all the AGN (and $\sim\!50\%$ of those with $L_{2-10\text{keV}} > 3.2 \times 10^{43}\,\mathrm{erg\ s}^{-1}$ ) using the X-ray spectra provided by Athena WFI. We find that the most obscured and elusive CT-AGN will be exquisitely sampled by SPICA-like mission or OST and that Athena will allow a fine characterisation of the most luminous ones. This will provide a significant step forward in the process of placing stronger constraints on the yet-unresolved XRB and investigating the BH accretion rate evolution up to very high redshift ( $z \ge 4$ ).

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The nuclear and extended mid-infrared emission of Seyfert galaxies

Cited by 29 publications

References 97 publications

The infrared to X-ray correlation spectra of unobscured type 1 active galactic nuclei

The infrared to X-ray correlation spectra of unobscured type 1 active galactic nuclei

Torus model properties of an ultra-hard X-ray selected sample of Seyfert galaxies

The role of SPICA-like missions and the Origins Space Telescope in the quest for heavily obscured AGN and synergies with Athena

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