Issue |
A&A
Volume 657, January 2022
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A57 | |
Number of page(s) | 17 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202141829 | |
Published online | 07 January 2022 |
X-ray spectroscopic survey of highly accreting AGN
1
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Roma, Italy
e-mail: marco.laurenti@roma2.infn.it
2
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
3
INAF – Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Via del Fosso del Caveliere 100, 00133 Roma, Italy
4
Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
5
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
6
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Augusto Righi”, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Via Gobetti 93/2, 40129 Bologna, Italy
7
INAF – Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna, Via Gobetti 93/3, 40129 Bologna, Italy
8
Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy
9
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy
10
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via G. B. Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy
11
Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, IAA-CSIC, Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, 18008 Granada, Spain
12
Space Science Data Center, SSDC, ASI, Via del Politecnico snc, 00133 Roma, Italy
13
Núcleo de Astronomía de la Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Diego Portales, Av. Ejército Libertador 441, Santiago 22, Chile
14
Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, PR China
15
INAF – Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica Milano, Via A. Corti 12, 20133 Milano, Italy
Received:
20
July
2021
Accepted:
11
October
2021
Improving our understanding of the nuclear properties of high-Eddington-ratio (λEdd) active galactic nuclei (AGN) is necessary since at this regime the radiation pressure is expected to affect the structure and efficiency of the accretion disc-corona system. This may cause departures from the typical nuclear properties of low-λEdd AGN, which have been largely studied so far. We present here the X-ray spectral analysis of 14 radio-quiet, λEdd ≳ 1 AGN at 0.4 ≤ z ≤ 0.75, observed with XMM-Newton. Optical/UV data from simultaneous Optical Monitor observations have also been considered. These quasars were selected to have relatively high values of black hole mass (MBH ∼ 108 − 8.5 M⊙) and bolometric luminosity (Lbol ∼ 1046 erg s−1) in order to complement previous studies of high-λEdd AGN at lower MBH and Lbol. We studied the relation between λEdd and other key X-ray spectral parameters, such as the photon index (Γ) of the power-law continuum, the X-ray bolometric correction (kbol, X), and the optical/UV-to-X-ray spectral index (αox). Our analysis reveals that, despite the homogeneous optical and supermassive black hole accretion properties, the X-ray properties of these high-λEdd AGN are quite heterogeneous. We indeed measured values of Γ between 1.3 and 2.5, at odds with the expectations based on previously reported Γ − λEdd relations, for which Γ ≥ 2 would be a ubiquitous hallmark of AGN with λEdd ∼ 1. Interestingly, we found that ∼30% of the sources are X-ray weak, with an X-ray emission about a factor of ∼10 − 80 fainter than that of typical AGN at similar UV luminosities. The X-ray weakness seems to be intrinsic and not due to the presence of absorption along the line of sight to the nucleus. This result may indicate that high-λEdd AGN commonly undergo periods of intrinsic X-ray weakness. Furthermore, results from follow-up monitoring with Swift of one of these X-ray weak sources suggest that these periods can last for several years.
Key words: galaxies: active / quasars: general / quasars: supermassive black holes
© ESO 2022
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