Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21535301y&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #353.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.536
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Obscured AGN are now recognized as playing a major role in the population of accreting supermassive black holes and contributing to the Cosmic X-ray Background (CXRB). A "missing" Compton-thick population was expected to emerge from hard (>10 keV) X-ray surveys such as those performed by the Swift BAT and INTEGRAL but these heavily obscured AGN remain elusive and their contribution to the CXRB is still uncertain. We present new results from theoretical calculations that show that hard X-ray surveys are biased againt obscured AGN even when the obscuration is not Compton-thick. We also show that the same material responsible for obscuration in AGN, when viewed thorough non-intercepting lines of sight, can enhance the apparent luminosity by more than 40% when the Compton depth is >1. Thus, even hard X-ray imaging surveys such as those planned with NuSTAR and Astro-H will be more sensitive to Compton-thick UNOBSCURED AGN than Compton-thick obscured AGN by at least an order of magnitude (for NH=1025 cm-2).
Murphy Kellen
Yaqoob Tahir
No associations
LandOfFree
Where are the Compton-thick AGN? does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Where are the Compton-thick AGN?, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Where are the Compton-thick AGN? will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-963079