Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2001-12-18
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
ApJ Letters in press, 12 pages, latex, 2 figures, also available at http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~belinda/HomePage.html
Scientific paper
10.1086/338908
The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) is finding previously unidentified, luminous red active galactic nuclei (AGN). This new sample has a space density similar to, or greater than, previously known AGN, suggesting that a large fraction of the overall population has been missed. Chandra observations of a well-defined subset of these objects reveal that all are X-ray faint, with the reddest sources being the faintest in X-rays. The X-ray hardness ratios cover a wide range, generally indicating log NH ~21-23 /cm*2, but the softest sources show no spectral evidence for intrinsic absorption. These characteristics suggest that a mix of absorbed, direct emission and unabsorbed, scattered and/or extended emission contributes to the X-ray flux, although we cannot rule out the possibility that they are intrinsically X-ray weak. This population of X-ray faint, predominantly broad-line objects could provide the missing population of X-ray absorbed AGN required by current models of the cosmic X-ray background. The existence of AGN which display both broad emission lines and absorbed X-rays has important implications for unification schemes and emphasizes the need for care in assigning classifications to individual AGN.
Cutri Roc M.
Ghosh Himel
Hines Dean Carter
Nelson Brant
Schmidt Gary D.
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