Browsing by Author "Bar, Rudolf E."

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    BASS. XXIV. The BASS DR2 Spectroscopic Line Measurements and AGN Demographics
    (2022) Oh, Kyuseok; Koss, Michael J.; Ueda, Yoshihiro; Stern, Daniel; Ricci, Claudio; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Powell, Meredith C.; den Brok, Jakob S.; Lamperti, Isabella; Mushotzky, Richard; Ricci, Federica; Bar, Rudolf E.; Rojas, Alejandra F.; Ichikawa, Kohei; Riffel, Rogerio; Treister, Ezequiel; Harrison, Fiona; Urry, C. Megan; Bauer, Franz E.; Schawinski, Kevin
    We present the second catalog and data release of optical spectral line measurements and active galactic nucleus (AGN) demographics of the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey, which focuses on the Swift-BAT hard X-ray detected AGNs. We use spectra from dedicated campaigns and publicly available archives to investigate spectral properties of most of the AGNs listed in the 70 month Swift-BAT all-sky catalog; specifically, 743 of the 746 unbeamed and unlensed AGNs (99.6%). We find a good correspondence between the optical emission line widths and the hydrogen column density distributions using the X-ray spectra, with a clear dichotomy of AGN types for N (H) = 10(22) cm(-2). Based on optical emission-line diagnostics, we show that 48%-75% of BAT AGNs are classified as Seyfert, depending on the choice of emission lines used in the diagnostics. The fraction of objects with upper limits on line emission varies from 6% to 20%. Roughly 4% of the BAT AGNs have lines too weak to be placed on the most commonly used diagnostic diagram, [O iii]lambda 5007/H beta versus [N ii]lambda 6584/H alpha, despite the high signal-to-noise ratio of their spectra. This value increases to 35% in the [O iii]lambda 5007/[O ii]lambda 3727 diagram, owing to difficulties in line detection. Compared to optically selected narrow-line AGNs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the BAT narrow-line AGNs have a higher rate of reddening/extinction, with H alpha/H beta > 5 (similar to 36%), indicating that hard X-ray selection more effectively detects obscured AGNs from the underlying AGN population. Finally, we present a subpopulation of AGNs that feature complex broad lines (34%, 250/743) or double-peaked narrow emission lines (2%, 17/743).
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    BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey - XIII. The nature of the most luminous obscured AGN in the low-redshift universe
    (2019) Bar, Rudolf E.; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Oh, Kyuseok; Koss, Michael J.; Wong, Ivy; Ricci, Claudio; Schawinski, Kevin; Weigel, Anna K.; Sartori, Lia F.; Ichikawa, Kohei; Secrest, Nathan J.; Stern, Daniel; Pacucci, Fabio; Mushotzky, Richard; Powell, Meredith C.; Ricci, Federica; Sani, Eleonora; Smith, Krista L.; Harrison, Fiona A.; Lamperti, Isabella; Urry, C. Megan
    We present a multiwavelength analysis of 28 of the most luminous low-redshift narrow-line, ultra-hard X-ray-selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) drawn from the 70-month Swift/BAT all-sky survey, with bolometric luminosities of log(L-bol/erg s(-1)) greater than or similar to 45.25. The broad goal of our study is to determine whether these objects have any distinctive properties, potentially setting them aside from lower luminosity obscured AGN in the local Universe. Our analysis relies on the first data release of the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS/DR1) and on dedicated observations with the VLT, Palomar, and Keck observatories. We find that the vast majority of our sources agree with commonly used AGN selection criteria which are based on emission line ratios and on mid-infrared colours. Our AGN are pre-dominantly hosted in massive galaxies (9.8 less than or similar to log (M-*/M-circle dot) less than or similar to 11.7); based on visual inspection of archival optical images, they appear to be mostly ellipticals. Otherwise, they do not have distinctive properties. Their radio luminosities, determined from publicly available survey data, show a large spread of almost four orders of magnitude- much broader than what is found for lower X-ray luminosity obscured AGN in BASS. Moreover, our sample shows no preferred combination of black hole masses (M-BH) and/or Eddington ratio (lambda(Edd)), covering 7.5 less than or similar to log (M-BH/M-circle dot) less than or similar to 10.3 and 0.01 less than or similar to lambda(Edd) less than or similar to 1. Based on the distribution of our sources in the lambda(Edd)-N-H plane, we conclude that our sample is consistent with a scenario where the amount of obscuring material along the line of sight is determined by radiation pressure exerted by the AGN on the dusty circumnuclear gas.