The 70-month Swift/BAT catalogue provides a sensitive view of the extragalactic X-ray sky at hard energies (>10 keV) containing about 800 Active Galactic Nuclei. We explore its content in heavily obscured, Compton-thick AGN by combining the BAT (14-195 keV) with the lower energy XRT (0.3-10 keV) data. We apply a Bayesian methodology using Markov chains to estimate the exact probability distribution of the column density for each source. We find 53 possible Compton-thick sources (with probability 3 to 100%) translating to a ~7% fraction of the AGN in our sample. We derive the first parametric luminosity function of Compton-thick AGN. The unabsorbed luminosity function can be represented by a double power-law with a break at $L_{\star} 2 \times 10^{42}$ $\rm ergs~s^{-1}$ in the 20-40 keV band.
We present a detailed X-ray spectral analysis of a complete sample of hard X-ray selected AGN in the Northern Galactic Cap of the 58-month Swift Burst Alert Telescope (Swift/BAT) catalog, consisting of 100 AGN with b>50deg. This region has excellent potential for further study due to the availability of a wide range of archival multi-wavelength data, and we propose it as a low-redshift analog to the `deep fields' work on AGN at higher redshifts. We present distributions of luminosity, absorption, and other key quantities, from fitting new and archival X-ray data gathered from XMM-Newton, Swift…
We present the joint NuSTAR and XMM-Newton spectral analysis in the 0.6-70 keV band of three candidate Compton thick (CT-) AGN selected in the 100-month Swift-BAT catalog. These objects were previously classified as CT-AGNs based on low quality Swift-XRT and Swift-BAT data, and had soft photon indices (Gamma>2.2) that suggested a potential overestimation of the line of sight column density. Thanks to the high-quality NuSTAR and XMM-Newton data we were able to determine that in all three objects the photon index was significantly overestimated, and two out of three sources are reclassified from…
We systematically investigate the near- (NIR) to far-infrared (FIR) photometric properties of a nearly complete sample of local active galactic nuclei (AGN) detected in the Swift/Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) all-sky ultra hard X-ray (14-195 keV) survey. Out of 606 non-blazar AGN in the Swift/BAT 70-month catalog at high galactic latitude of $|b|>10^{\circ}$, we obtain IR photometric data of 604 objects by cross-matching the AGN positions with catalogs from the WISE, AKARI, IRAS, and Herschel infrared observatories. We find a good correlation between the ultra-hard X-ray and mid-IR (MIR) luminos…
Source identification for the Swift-BAT 150-month hard X-ray catalog using soft X-ray observations
Clemson University（克莱姆森大学）；University of Virginia（弗吉尼亚大学）；Università di Bologna（博洛尼亚大学）；INAF – Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna（意大利国家天体物理研究所博洛尼亚天文与空间科学观测站）；European Southern Observatory（欧洲南方天文台）；University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校）；California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）
Hard X-ray ($\geq 10$ keV) observations of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) can shed light on some of the most obscured episodes of accretion onto supermassive black holes. The 70-month Swift/BAT all-sky survey, which probes the 14-195 keV energy range, has currently detected 838 AGN. We report here on the broad-band X-ray (0.3-150 keV) characteristics of these AGN, obtained by combining XMM-Newton, Swift/XRT, ASCA, Chandra, and Suzaku observations in the soft X-ray band ($\leq 10$ keV) with 70-month averaged Swift/BAT data. The non-blazar AGN of our sample are almost equally divided into unobscur…
(Abridged) We present simultaneous optical--to--X-ray spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from Swift's X-ray and UV--optical telescopes (XRT and UVOT) for a well-selected sample of 26 low-redshift (z<0.1) AGN from the Swift/BAT 9-month catalogue, the largest well-studied, hard X-ray selected survey of local AGN to date. Our subsample consists of AGN with low intrinsic X-ray absorption (N_H<10^22 cm^-2) and minimal spectral complexity, to more accurately recover the intrinsic accretion luminosity in these sources. We perform a correction for host galaxy contamination in all available UVOT filt…
The fraction of Compton thick sources is one of the main uncertainties left in understanding the AGN population. The Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) all-sky survey, for the first time gives us an unbiased sample of AGN for all but the most heavily absorbed sources (log NH > 25). Still, the BAT spectra (14 - 195 keV) are time-averaged over months of observations and therefore hard to compare with softer spectra from the Swift XRT or other missions. This makes it difficult to distinguish between Compton-thin and Compton-thick models. With Suzaku, we have obtained simultaneous hard (> 15 keV) a…
The nature of a substantial percentage (about one fifth) of hard X-ray sources discovered with the BAT instrument onboard the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (hereafter Swift) is unknown because of the lack of an identified longer-wavelength counterpart. Without such follow-up, an X-ray catalogue is of limited astrophysical value: we therefore embarked, since 2009, on a long-term project to uncover the optical properties of sources identified by Swift by using a large suite of ground-based telescopes and instruments. In this work, we continue our programme of characterization of unidentified or…
We present the combined Chandra and Swift-BAT spectral analysis of nine low-redshift (z <= 0.10), candidate heavily obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) selected from the Swift-BAT 150-month catalog. We located soft (1-10 keV) X-ray counterparts to these BAT sources and joint fit their spectra with physically motivated models.The spectral analysis in the 1-150 keV energy band determined that all sources are obscured, with a line-of-sight column density NH >= 10^22 cm^-2 at a 90% confidence level. Four of these sources show significant obscuration with NH >= 10^23 cm^-2 and two additional sour…
We present the broadband (0.5-100 keV) spectra of three heavily obscured Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), NGC 1106, UGC 03752, and NGC 2788A, observed with Suzaku and Swift/Burst Alert Telescope (BAT). The targets are selected from the Swift/BAT 70-month catalog on the basis of high hardness ratio between above and below 10 keV, and their X-ray spectra are reported here for the first time. We apply three models, a conventional model utilizing an analytic reflection code and two Monte-Carlo based torus models with a doughnut-like geometry (MYTorus) and with a nearly spherical geometry (Ikeda toru…
While X-ray emission from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is common, the detailed physics behind this emission is not well understood. This is in part because high quality broadband spectra are required to precisely derive fundamental parameters of X-ray emission such as the photon index, folding energy, and reflection coefficient. Here we present values of such parameters for 33 AGN observed as part of the 105 month Swift/BAT campaign and with coordinated archival XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations. We look for correlations between the various coronal parameters in addition to correlations betwe…
We present the first analysis of the all-sky Swift BAT ultra hard X-ray (14-195 keV) data for a targeted list of objects. We find the BAT data can be studied at 3x fainter limits than in previous blind detection catalogs based on prior knowledge of source positions and using smaller energy ranges for source detection. We determine the AGN fraction in 134 nearby (z<0.05) luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGS) from the GOALS sample. We find that LIRGs have a higher detection frequency than galaxies matched in stellar mass and redshift at 14-195 keV and 24-35 keV. In agreement with work at other wave…
We report the results of a cross-match study between the hard X-ray and GeV gamma-ray catalogs, by making use of the latest 105-month Swift-BAT and 10-yr Fermi-LAT catalogs, respectively. The spatial cross-matching between the two catalogs results in the matching of 132 point-like sources, including ~5% of false-match sources. Additionally, 24 sources that have been identified as the same identifications are matched. Among the 75 extended sources in the Fermi-LAT catalog, 31 sources have spatial coincidences with at least one Swift-BAT source inside their extent. All the matched sources consis…
Compton-thick AGN Characterisation in a Multi-wavelength Context: Insights from the 70-Month \textit{SWIFT}/BAT Catalogue
Radio Cosmology Research Lab, Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics Research, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya（马来亚大学理学院天体物理学与天文学研究中心射电宇宙学实验室）；Centre of Foundation, Language and Malaysian Studies, Universiti Malaya-Wales（马来亚-威尔士大学基础、语言与马来西亚研究中心）；National Centre for Particle Physics (NCPP), Universiti Malaya（马来亚大学国家粒子物理中心）；National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS)（日本国立天文台，国立自然科学研究所）；Department of Astronomical Science, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University of Advanced Studies)（尖端研究大学院大学天体科学系）；Natural Science Laboratory, Toyo University（东洋大学自然科学实验室）；Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia（马来西亚国民科技大学理学院应用物理系）
The all-sky hard X-ray survey performed by Swift/BAT allowed the detection of many heavily obscured Compton-thick AGN. In our previous work, we have identified more than 50 candidate Compton-thick AGN in the local Universe, corresponding to an observed fraction of about 7% of the total AGN population. This number can be converted to the intrinsic Compton-thick AGN number density, only if we know the form of the Compton-thick AGN spectrum, that is the energy of their absorption turnover, photon-index and its cut-off energy at high energies, as well as the strength of the reflection component on…
We study the populations of X-ray sources in the Milky Way in the 15-55 keV band using a deep survey with the BAT instrument aboard the Swift observatory. We present the logN-logS distributions of the various source types and we analyze their variability and spectra. For the low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) and the high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) we derive the luminosity functions to a limiting luminosity of L_X~7 times10^{34} erg s/s. Our results confirm the previously found flattening of the LMXB luminosity function below a luminosity of L_X~10^{37} erg s/s. The luminosity function of the HM…
Changing-look (CL) AGN are unique probes of accretion onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs), especially when simultaneous observations in complementary wavebands allow investigations into the properties of their accretion flows. We present the results of a search for CL behaviour in 412 Swift-BAT detected AGN with multiple epochs of optical spectroscopy from the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS). 125 of these AGN also have 14-195 keV ultra-hard X-ray light-curves from Swift-BAT which are contemporaneous with the epochs of optical spectroscopy. Eight CL events are presented for the first time…
Variability is one of the hallmarks of Active Galactic Nuclei. The Burst Alert Telescope onboard of Swift, with its homogeneous coverage of the sky is a formidable tool to study variability at hard X-rays. We present here the analysis of the 1-month binned Swift/BAT lightcurves of the 20 brightest Active Galactic Nuclei in the hard X-ray sky. The sample consists of 2 blazars, 3 radio galaxies, 6 Seyfert 1/1.5s, 8 Seyfert 2s and 1 Narrow Line Seyfert 1. We found that all the objects show variability, and most of them have a value of the fractional root mean squared variability amplitude of Fvar…
The Swift/BAT 9-month catalogue of active galactic nuclei (AGN) provides an unbiased census of local supermassive black hole accretion, and probes to all but the highest levels of absorption in AGN. We explore a method for characterising the bolometric output of both obscured and unobscured AGN by combining the hard X-ray data from Swift/BAT (14-195keV) with the reprocessed IR emission as seen with the IRAS all-sky surveys. This approach bypasses the complex modifications to the SED introduced by absorption in the optical, UV and 0.1-10 keV regimes and provides a long-term, average picture of …
White dwarf masses in cataclysmic variables are difficult to determine accurately, but are fundamental for understanding binary system parameters, as well as binary evolution. We investigate the X-ray spectral properties of a sample of Intermediate Polars detected above 15 keV to derive the masses of their accreting white dwarfs. We use data from the Swift/BAT instrument which during the first 2.5 yrs of operation has detected 22 known intermediate polars. The X-ray spectra of these sources are used to estimate the mass of the white dwarfs. We are able to produce a mass estimate for 22 out of …
The reflection hump is a prominent feature in the hard X-ray spectrum of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Its exact shape and its correlation to other quantities provide valuable information about the inner and outer regions of an AGN. Our main goal is to study the reflection hump in a large sample of nearby AGN. We aim to investigate the evolution of reflection with absorption and its correlation with the spectral index. We analysed archived NuSTAR observations of the 70-month BAT catalogue AGN. By performing a detailed spectral analysis, we were able to constrain the spectral parameters and to …
We quantify the luminosity contribution of active galactic nuclei (AGN) to the 12 $μ$m, mid-infrared (MIR; 5-38 $μ$m), and the total IR (5-1000 $μ$m) emission in the local AGN detected in the all-sky 70-month Swift/Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) ultra hard X-ray survey. We decompose the IR spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of 587 objects into AGN and starburst components using AGN torus and star-forming galaxy templates. This enables us to recover the AGN torus emission also for low-luminosity end, down to $\log (L_{14-150}/{\rm erg}~{\rm s}^{-1}) \simeq 41$, which typically have significant h…
The multi-messenger discovery of gravitational waves (GWs) and light from the binary neutron star (NS) merger GW170817, associated with Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) 170817A and kilonova AT2017gfo, has marked the start of a new era in astrophysics. GW170817 has confirmed that binary NS mergers are progenitors of at least some short GRBs. The peculiar properties of the GRB 170817A radio afterglow, characterized by a delayed onset related to the off-axis geometry, have also demonstrated how some nearby short GRBs may not be identified as such with standard short-timescale electromagnetic follow-up obser…
We have assembled the largest sample of ultra hard X-ray selected (14-195 keV) AGN with host galaxy optical data to date, with 185 nearby (z<0.05), moderate luminosity AGN from the Swift BAT sample. The BAT AGN host galaxies have intermediate optical colors (u-r and g-r) that are bluer than a comparison sample of inactive galaxies and optically selected AGN from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) which are chosen to have the same stellar mass. Based on morphological classifications from the RC3 and the Galaxy Zoo, the bluer colors of BAT AGN are mainly due to a higher fraction of mergers and …
We perform a systematic X-ray spectroscopic analysis of 57 local ultra/luminous infrared galaxy systems (containing 84 individual galaxies) observed with Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array and/or Swift/BAT. Combining soft X-ray data obtained with Chandra, XMM-Newton, Suzaku and/or Swift/XRT, we identify 40 hard ($>$10 keV) X-ray detected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and constrain their torus parameters with the X-ray clumpy torus model XCLUMPY (Tanimoto et al. 2019). Among the AGNs at $z < 0.03$, for which sample biases are minimized, the fraction of Compton-thick ($N_{\rm H} \geq 10^{24}$…
We use Herschel data to analyze the size of the far-infrared 70micron emission for z<0.06 local samples of 277 hosts of Swift-BAT selected active galactic nuclei (AGN), and 515 comparison galaxies that are not detected by BAT. For modest far-infrared luminosities 8.5<log(LFIR)<10.5, we find large scatter of half light radii Re70 for both populations, but a typical Re70 <~ 1 kpc for the BAT hosts that is only half that of comparison galaxies of same far-infrared luminosity. The result mostly reflects a more compact distribution of star formation (and hence gas) in the AGN hosts, but compact AGN…
We present a systematic spectral analysis with Suzaku of six AGNs detected in the Swift/BAT hard X-ray (15--200 keV) survey, Swift J0138.6-4001, J0255.2-0011, J0350.1-5019, J0505.7-2348, J0601.9-8636, and J1628.1-5145. This is considered to be a representative sample of new AGNs without X-ray spectral information before the BAT survey. We find that the 0.5--200 keV spectra of these sources can be uniformly fit with a base model consisting of heavily absorbed (log $N_{\rm{H}} > 23.5 \rm{cm}^{-2}$) transmitted components, scattered lights, a reflection component, and an iron-K emission line. The…
Based on current models of the Cosmic X-ray Background (CXB), heavily obscured Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are expected to make up ~10% of the peak emission of the CXB and ~20% of the total population of AGN, yet few of these sources have been recorded and characterized in current surveys. Here we present the Chandra follow-up observation of 14 AGN detected by Swift-BAT. For five sources in the sample, NuSTAR observations in the 3-80 keV band are also available. The X-ray spectral fitting over the 0.3-150 keV energy range allows us to determine the main X-ray spectral parameters, such as the …
We investigate the location of an ultra-hard X-ray selected sample of AGN from the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) catalog with respect to the main sequence (MS) of star-forming galaxies using Herschel-based measurements of the star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass (\mstar) from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) photometry where the AGN contribution has been carefully removed. We construct the MS with galaxies from the Herschel Reference Survey and Herschel Stripe 82 Survey using the exact same methods to measure the SFR and \mstar{} as the Swift/BAT AGN. We find a large fraction of the S…
We present initial results from a Hubble Space Telescope snapshot imaging survey of the host galaxies of Swift-BAT active galactic nuclei (AGN) at z<0.1. The hard X-ray selection makes this sample sample relatively unbiased in terms of obscuration compared to optical AGN selection methods. The high-resolution images of 154 target AGN enable us to investigate the detailed photometric structure of the host galaxies, such as the Hubble type and merging features. We find that 48% and 44% of the sample is hosted by early-type and late-type galaxies, respectively. The host galaxies of the remaining …
