Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2009-04-22
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
17 pages, to appear in A&A
Scientific paper
We present XMM-Newton spectral analysis of all 38 Seyfert galaxies from the Palomar spectroscopic sample of galaxies. These are found at distances of up to 67 Mpc and cover the absorbed 2-10 keV luminosity range ~10^38-10^43 ergs/s. Our aim is to determine the distribution of the X-ray absorption in the local Universe. Three of these are Compton-thick with column densities just above 10^24 cm^-2 and high equivalent width FeKa lines (>700 eV). Five more sources have low values of the X-ray to [OIII] flux ratio suggesting that they could be associated with obscured nuclei. Their individual spectra show neither high absorbing columns nor flat spectral indices. However, their stacked spectrum reveals an absorbing column density of N_H~10^23 cm^-2. Therefore the fraction of absorbed sources (>10^22 cm^-2 could be as high as 55+/-12%. A number of Seyfert-2 appear to host unabsorbed nuclei. These are associated with low-luminosity sources Lx < 3x10^41 ergs/s. Their stacked spectrum again shows no absorption while inspection of the \chandra images, where available, shows that contamination from nearby sources does not affect the {\it XMM-Newton} spectra in most cases. Nevertheless, such low luminosity sources are not contributing significantly to the X-ray background flux. When we consider only the brighter, $>10^{41}$ \lunits, 21 sources, we find that the fraction of absorbed nuclei rises to $75\pm19 $ % while that of Compton-thick sources to 15-20%. The fraction of Compton-thick AGN is lower than that predicted by the X-ray background synthesis model in the same luminosity and redshift range.}
Akylas Athanassios
Georgantopoulos Ioannis
No associations
LandOfFree
XMM-Newton observations of Seyfert galaxies from the Palomar spectroscopic survey: the X-ray absorption distribution 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 XMM-Newton observations of Seyfert galaxies from the Palomar spectroscopic survey: the X-ray absorption distribution, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and XMM-Newton observations of Seyfert galaxies from the Palomar spectroscopic survey: the X-ray absorption distribution will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-275163