SIMBAD references

2012A&A...537A..16F - Astronomy and Astrophysics, volume 537A, 16-16 (2012/1-1)

Faint high-redshift AGN in the Chandra Deep Field South: the evolution of the AGN luminosity function and black hole demography.

FIORE F., PUCCETTI S., GRAZIAN A., MENCI N., SHANKAR F., SANTINI P., PICONCELLI E., KOEKEMOER A.M., FONTANA A., BOUTSIA K., CASTELLANO M., LAMASTRA A., MALACARIA C., FERUGLIO C., MATHUR S., MILLER N. and PANNELLA M.

Abstract (from CDS):

We present detection and analysis of faint X-ray sources in the Chandra deep field south (CDFS) using the 4 Ms Chandra observation. We place constraints on active galactic nuclei (AGN) luminosity functions at z=3-7, its cosmological evolution, and high-redshift black hole and AGN demography. We use a new detection algorithm, using the entire three-dimensional data-cube (position and energy), and searching for X-ray counts at the position of high-z galaxies in the GOODS-South survey. This optimized technique results in the identification of 54 AGN at z>3, 29 of which are new detections. Applying stringent completeness criteria, we derive AGN luminosity functions in the redshift bins 3-4, 4-5, and >5.8 and for 42.75<logL(2-10keV)<44.5. We combine this data with the luminous AGN luminosity functions from optical surveys and find that the evolution of the high-z, wide luminosity range luminosity function can be modeled by pure luminosity evolution with L* decreasing from 6.6x1044 erg/s at z=3 to L*=2x1044 erg/s at z=6. We compare the high-z luminosity function with the predictions of theoretical models using galaxy interactions as AGN triggering mechanism. We find that these models are broadly able to reproduce the high-z AGN luminosity functions. Closer agreement is found when we assume a minimum dark matter halo mass for black hole formation and growth. We compare our AGN luminosity functions with galaxy mass functions to derive the high-z AGN duty cycle, using observed Eddington ratio distributions to derive black hole masses. We find that the duty cycle increases with galaxy stellar mass and redshift by a factor of 10-30 from z=0.25 to z=4-5. We also report the detection of a large fraction of highly obscured, Compton thick AGN at z>3 (18+17–10%). Their optical counterparts do not show any reddening and we thus conclude that the size of the X-ray absorber is likely smaller than the dust sublimation radius. We finally report the discovery of a highly star-forming galaxy at z=3.47, arguing that its X-ray luminosity is likely dominated by stellar sources. If confirmed, this would be one of the farthest objects in which stellar sources have been detected in X-rays.

Abstract Copyright:

Journal keyword(s): accretion, accretion disks - black hole physics - galaxies: active - X-rays: galaxies

Nomenclature: Tables 1,2 : [FPG2012] ENNNNN N=21 among (Nos E537-E10247), [FPG2012] MNNNNN N=44 among (Nos M208-M70531), [FPG2012] 216554 N=1.

Simbad objects: 65

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