Finding rare AGN: XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of SDSS Stripe 82
Abstract
We have analysed the XMM-Newton and Chandra data overlapping ∼16.5 deg2 of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82, including ∼4.6 deg2 of proprietary XMM-Newton data that we present here. In total, 3362 unique X-ray sources are detected at high significance. We derive the XMM-Newton number counts and compare them with our previously reported Chandra logN-logS relations and other X-ray surveys. The Stripe 82 X-ray source lists have been matched to multiwavelength catalogues using a maximum likelihood estimator algorithm. We discovered the highest redshift (z = 5.86) quasar yet identified in an X-ray survey. We find 2.5 times more high-luminosity (Lx ≥ 1045 erg s-1) AGN than the smaller area Chandra and XMM-Newton survey of COSMOS and 1.3 times as many identified by XBoötes. Comparing the high-luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGN) we have identified with those predicted by population synthesis models, our results suggest that this AGN population is a more important component of cosmic black hole growth than previously appreciated. Approximately a third of the X-ray sources not detected in the optical are identified in the infrared, making them candidates for the elusive population of obscured high-luminosity AGN in the early universe.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stt1837
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1309.7048
- Bibcode:
- 2013MNRAS.436.3581L
- Keywords:
-
- catalogues;
- surveys;
- galaxies: active;
- quasars: general;
- quasars: supermassive black holes;
- X-rays: galaxies;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 25 pages, 18 figures, 5 tables. accepted for publication in MNRAS. Catalogs can be downloaded at http://www.astro.yale.edu/lamassa/s82x.html