The Largest X-ray Selected Sample of z > 3 AGNs: C-COSMOS + ChaMPS
Abstract
There is strong evidence that powerful active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are important to the evolution of galaxies. AGN evolution at high redshifts, before the density peak, illuminates the role of AGN in the formation and co-evolution of galaxies and their central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) when rapid SMBH growth took place. Optical surveys (e.g. Glikman et al. 2011; Ikeda et al. 2011) are severely biased against obscuration. In contrast, X-ray surveys detect obscured AGNs up to Compton Thick and are now sensitive enough to sample the bulk of the z > 3 AGN population. The few X-ray studies to date suggest a significant decline at z > 3 (e.g. Brusa et al. 2009; Civano et al. 2011; Vito et al; 2012), but the shape of this decline is still uncertain due to the limited sample size, especially at z > 4. To overcome these limits, we combined the two largest samples of z > 3 X-ray selected AGN with spectroscopic redshifts: the Chandra Multi-wavelength Project (ChaMP) survey (Trichas et al. 2012), and the C-COSMOS survey (Civano et al. 2011). The total of 159 z > 3 AGNs almost doubles the sample size and, most importantly, triples the sample at z > 4, where the uncertainties have been greatest. Our sample includes ~35 sources in the low luminosity range [LX < 1044 erg/s] which gives a first determination of their density evolution. Our sample also contains a both obscured and unobscured AGNs, and their separate evolution has been determined.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #223
- Pub Date:
- January 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014AAS...22315005K