Publication Details

AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS

SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH

earth and planetary sciences

λ5007 and X-RAY PROPERTIES of A COMPLETE SAMPLE of HARD X-RAY SELECTED AGNs in the LOCAL UNIVERSE

Astrophysical Journal, Volume 815, No. 1, Article 1, Year 2015

We study the correlation between the [O iii] λ5007 and X-ray luminosities of local active galactic nuclei (AGNs), using a complete, hard X-ray (>10 keV) selected sample in the Swift/BAT 9-month catalog. From our optical spectroscopic observations at the South African Astronomical Observatory and the literature, a catalog of [O iii] λ5007 line flux for all 103 AGNs at Galactic latitudes of is compiled. Significant correlations with intrinsic X-ray luminosity () are found for both observed () and extinction-corrected () luminosities, separately for X-ray unabsorbed and absorbed AGNs. We obtain the regression form of and from the whole sample. The absorbed AGNs with low (<0.5%) scattering fractions in soft X-rays show on average smaller and ratios than the other absorbed AGNs, while those in edge-on host galaxies do not. These results suggest that a significant fraction of thisopulation is buried in tori with small opening angles. By using these versus correlations, the X-ray luminosity function (LF) of local AGNs (including Compton-thick AGNs) in a standardopulation synthesis model gives much better agreement with the [O iii] λ5007 LF derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey thanreviously reported. This confirms that hard X-ray observations are a veryowerful tool to find AGNs with high completeness.
Statistics
Citations: 43
Authors: 14
Affiliations: 13
Identifiers
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Quantitative