Issue |
A&A
Volume 418, Number 3, May II 2004
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 827 - 840 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20035622 | |
Published online | 16 April 2004 |
The HELLAS2XMM survey*
V. Near-Infrared observations of X-ray sources with extreme X/O ratios
1
INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy e-mail: lucia,comastri,ciliegi,l_vignali@bo.astro.it
2
Dipartimento di Astronomia Università di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy e-mail: brusa@bo.astro.it
3
INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via Frascati 33, 00040 Monteporzio, Italy e-mail: cocchia,fiore,puccetti@mporzio.astro.it
4
Dipartimento di Fisica Università di Roma Tre, via Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy e-mail: lafranca,matt,perola@fis.uniroma3.it
5
INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125, Firenze, Italy e-mail: maiolino@arcetri.astro.it
6
IASF-CNR, Istituto di Fisica Cosmica, via Bassini 15, 20133, Milano, Italy e-mail: silvano@mi.iasf.cnr.it
7
INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Brera 28, 20121 Milano, Italy e-mail: paola@brera.mi.astro.it
Corresponding author: M. Mignoli, mignoli@bo.astro.it
Received:
3
November
2003
Accepted:
19
January
2004
We present the results of deep near-infrared observations
(with ISAAC at VLT) of eleven hard X-ray
selected sources in the Hellas2XMM survey, with faint optical magnitude ( 24)
and high X-ray-to-optical flux ratio.
All but one of the sources have been detected in the Ks band,
with bright counterparts (Ks < 19) and very red colors (
),
and therefore belong to the ERO population.
The quality of the near-infrared data is such that we can
take advantage of the sub-arcsec seeing to obtain
accurate morphological information. A detailed analysis of the
surface brightness profiles allows us to classify all of the
near-infrared counterparts. There are two point-like objects, seven
elliptical (bulge) galaxies and one source with an exponential profile.
None of the extended sources shows any evidence of the presence
of a central unresolved object tracing the putative X-ray emitting AGN.
Using both the
colors and the morphological information,
we have estimated for all the sources a “minimum photometric redshift”,
ranging between 0.8 and 2.4; the elliptical hosts
have
. We computed the X-ray properties
using these redshifts: most of the sources have
cm-2, with unabsorbed
X-ray luminosities up to 1045 erg s-1
in the intrinsic 2-10 keV band.
These objects therefore belong to the long-sought population of obscured
(type II) quasars and, from a statistical point of view,
they are a non-negligible
fraction (about 10%) of the most luminous AGN.
Selecting the high X/O sources for a follow-up study in the near-infrared
is therefore a powerful technique aimed at studying at high redshift
the hosts of Type II AGN, whose obscured nuclei do not affect the
host galaxy morphologies. Overall, our results seem to indicate that the
hosts are mostly elliptical galaxies at
, and that these near-IR
bright objects would be among the most massive spheroids at these
epochs.
Key words: cosmology: observations / galaxies: active / infrared: galaxies / X-rays: galaxies
Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Paranal, Chile (ESO Programme 70.A-0657) and La Silla, Chile (ESO Programme IDs: 66.A-0520, 67.A-0401, 68.A-0514). Based also on observations made with the XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA member states and the USA (NASA).
© ESO, 2004
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