AGN Fueling and Obscuration

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) provides a unique opportunity to study the growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with deep multiwavelength observations over 2 square degrees. I will present results from a 3-year spectroscopic survey of X-ray selected AGNs in COSMOS using the Magellan/IMACS and MMT/Hectospec instruments. I will show how our observations reveal accretion rate as a driver of SMBH activity. Type 1 AGN in COSMOS shows that broad emission lines are produced only at high accretion rates (Lbol/LEdd > 0.01). COSMOS also contains the largest sample of "optically dull" AGN, which are X-ray bright AGN that lack emission lines in their optical spectra, and many of these objects are best described as radiatively inefficient accretors. In this framework of SMBH activity, the optical/UV continuum can no longer support ionized emission lines at low accretion rate (Lbol/LEdd < 10-4). I will show how "obscured" AGNs might instead be intrinsically weak AGNs with low accretion rates, and how accretion rate is an important part of any AGN "unified model."

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