Browsing by Author "Ricci, Federica"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 21
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    BASS XXXII: Studying the Nuclear Millimeter-wave Continuum Emission of AGNs with ALMA at Scales ≲100-200 pc
    (2022) Kawamuro, Taiki; Ricci, Claudio; Imanishi, Masatoshi; Mushotzky, Richard F.; Izumi, Takuma; Ricci, Federica; Bauer, Franz E.; Koss, Michael J.; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Ichikawa, Kohei; Rojas, Alejandra F.; Smith, Krista Lynne; Shimizu, Taro; Oh, Kyuseok; den Brok, Jakob S.; Baba, Shunsuke; Balokovic, Mislay; Chang, Chin-Shin; Kakkad, Darshan; Pfeifle, Ryan W.; Privon, George C.; Temple, Matthew J.; Ueda, Yoshihiro; Harrison, Fiona; Powell, Meredith C.; Stern, Daniel; Urry, Meg; Sanders, David B.
    To understand the origin of nuclear (less than or similar to 100 pc) millimeter-wave (mm-wave) continuum emission in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), we systematically analyzed subarcsecond resolution Band-6 (211-275 GHz) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array data of 98 nearby AGNs (z < 0.05) from the 70 month Swift/BAT catalog. The sample, almost unbiased for obscured systems, provides the largest number of AGNs to date with high mm-wave spatial resolution sampling (similar to 1-200 pc), and spans broad ranges of 14-150 keV luminosity {40< log [L-14(-150)/(erg s(-1))] < 45}, black hole mass [5 < log(M-BH/M-circle dot) < 10], and Eddington ratio (-4 < log lambda(Edd) < 2). We find a significant correlation between 1.3 mm (230 GHz) and 14-150 keV luminosities. Its scatter is approximate to 0.36 dex, and the mm-wave emission may serve as a good proxy of the AGN luminosity, free of dust extinction up to N-H similar to 10(26) CM-2. While the mm-wave emission could be self-absorbed synchrotron radiation around the X-ray corona according to past works, we also discuss different possible origins of the mm-wave emission: AGN-related dust emission, outflow-driven shocks, and a small-scale (<200 pc) jet. The dust emission is unlikely to be dominant, as the mm-wave slope is generally flatter than expected. Also, due to no increase in the mm-wave luminosity with the Eddington ratio, a radiation-driven outflow model is possibly not the common mechanism Furthermore, we find independence of the mm-wave luminosity on indicators of the inclination angle from the polar axis of the nuclear structure, which is inconsistent with a jet model whose luminosity depends only on the angle.
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    BASS XXXIX: Swift-BAT AGN with changing-look optical spectra
    (2023) Temple, Matthew J.; Ricci, Claudio; Koss, Michael J.; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Bauer, Franz E.; Mushotzky, Richard; Rojas, Alejandra F.; Caglar, Turgay; Harrison, Fiona; Oh, Kyuseok; Gonzalez, Estefania Padilla; Powell, Meredith C.; Ricci, Federica; Riffel, Rogerio; Stern, Daniel; Urry, C. Megan
    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, where the appearance or disappearance of broad Balmer line emission leads to a change in the observed Seyfert type classification. Combining with known events from the literature, 21 AGN from BASS are now known to display CL behaviour. Nine CL events have 14-195 keV data available, and five of these CL events can be associated with significant changes in their 14-195 keV flux from BAT. The ultra-hard X-ray flux is less affected by obscuration and so these changes in the 14-195 keV band suggest that the majority of our CL events are not due to changes in line-of-sight obscuration. We derive a CL rate of 0.7-6.2 per cent on 10-25 yr time-scales, and show that many transitions happen within at most a few years. Our results motivate further multiwavelength observations with higher cadence to better understand the variability physics of accretion onto SMBHs.
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    BASS-XL: X-ray variability properties of unobscured active galactic nuclei
    (2023) Tortosa, Alessia; Ricci, Claudio; Arevalo, Patricia; Koss, Michael J.; Bauer, Franz E.; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Mushotzky, Richard; Temple, Matthew J.; Ricci, Federica; Lilayu, Alejandra Rojas; Kawamuro, Taiki; Caglar, Turgay; Liu, Tingting; Harrison, Fiona; Oh, Kyuseok; Powell, Meredith Clark; Stern, Daniel; Urry, Claudia Megan
    We investigate the X-ray variability properties of Seyfert 1 Galaxies belonging to the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS). The sample includes 151 unobscured (N-H < 10(22) cm(-2)) AGNs observed with XMM-Newton for a total exposure time of similar to 27 ms, representing the deepest variability study done so far with high signal-to-noise XMM-Newton observations, almost doubling the number of observations analysed in previous works. We constrain the relation between the normalized excess variance and the 2-10 keV AGN luminosities, black hole masses, and Eddington ratios. We find a highly significant correlation between sigma(2)(NXS) and M-BH, with a scatter of similar to 0.85 dex. For sources with high L2-10 this correlation has a lower normalization, confirming that more luminous (higher mass) AGNs show less variability. We explored the sigma(2)(NXS) versus M-BH relation for the sub-sample of sources with M-BH estimated via the 'reverberation mapping' technique, finding a tighter anticorrelation, with a scatter of similar to 0.65 dex. We examine how the sigma(2)(NXS) changes with energy by studying the relation between the variability in the hard (3-10 keV) and the soft (0.2-1 keV)/medium (1-3 keV) energy bands, finding that the spectral components dominating the hard energy band are more variable than the spectral components dominating in softer energy bands, on time-scales shorter than 10 ks.
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    BASS. XXIII. A New Mid-infrared Diagnostic for Absorption in Active Galactic Nuclei
    (2022) Pfeifle, Ryan W.; Ricci, Claudio; Boorman, Peter G.; Stalevski, Marko; Asmus, Daniel; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Koss, Michael J.; Stern, Daniel; Ricci, Federica; Satyapal, Shobita; Ichikawa, Kohei; Rosario, David J.; Caglar, Turgay; Treister, Ezequiel; Powell, Meredith; Oh, Kyuseok; Urry, C. Megan; Harrison, Fiona
    In this study, we use the Swift/BAT AGN sample, which has received extensive multiwavelength follow-up analysis as a result of the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey, to develop a diagnostic for nuclear obscuration by examining the relationship between the line-of-sight column densities (N-H), the 2-10 keV to 12 mu m luminosity ratio, and WISE mid-infrared colors. We demonstrate that heavily obscured AGNs tend to exhibit both preferentially "redder" mid-infrared colors and lower values of L-X,L-Obs./L-12 mu m than less obscured AGNs, and we derive expressions relating N-H to the L-X,L-Obs./L-12 mu m and L-22 mu m/L-4.6 mu m luminosity ratios, as well as develop diagnostic criteria using these ratios. Our diagnostic regions yield samples that are greater than or similar to 80% complete and greater than or similar to 60% pure for AGNs with log(N-H/cm(-2)) >= 24, as well as greater than or similar to 85% pure for AGNs with log(N-H/cm(-2)) greater than or similar to 23.5. We find that these diagnostics cannot be used to differentiate between optically star-forming galaxies and active galaxies. Further, mid-IR contributions from host galaxies that dominate the observed 12 mu m emission can lead to larger apparent X-ray deficits and redder mid-IR colors than the AGNs would intrinsically exhibit, though this effect helps to better separate less and more obscured AGNs. Finally, we test our diagnostics on two catalogs of AGNs and infrared galaxies, including the XMM-Newton XXL-N field, and we identify several known Compton-thick AGNs, as well as a handful of candidate heavily obscured AGNs based upon our proposed obscuration diagnostics.
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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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    BASS. XXIX. The Near-infrared View of the Broad-line Region (BLR): The Effects of Obscuration in BLR Characterization
    (2022) Ricci, Federica ; Treister, Ezequiel ; Bauer, Franz E.; Mejía-Restrepo, Julian E. ; Koss, Michael J. ; den Brok, Jakob S. ; Baloković, Mislav ; Bär, Rudolf ; Bessiere, Patricia ; Caglar, Turgay ; Harrison, Fiona ; Ichikawa, Kohei ; Kakkad, Darshan; Lamperti, Isabella ; Mushotzky, Richard ; Oh, Kyuseok ; Powell, Meredith C. ; Privon, George C. ; Ricci, Claudio ; Riffel, Rogerio ; Rojas, Alejandra F. ; Sani, Eleonora ; Smith, Krista L. ; Stern, Daniel ; Trakhtenbrot, Benny ; Urry, C. Megan ; Veilleux, Sylvain
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    BASS. XXV. DR2 Broad-line-based Black Hole Mass Estimates and Biases from Obscuration
    (2022) Mejía-Restrepo, Julian E.; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Koss, Michael J.; Oh, Kyuseok; den Brok, Jakob; Stern, Daniel; Powell, Meredith C.; Ricci, Federica; Caglar, Turgay; Ricci, Claudio; Bauer, Franz Erik; Treister , Ezequiel; Harrison, Fiona A.; Urry, C. M.; Ananna, Tonima Tasnim; Asmus, Daniel; Assef, Roberto J.; Bär, Rudolf E.; Bessiere, Patricia S.; Burtscher, Leonard; Ichikawa, Kohei; Kakkad, Darshan; Kamraj, Nikita; Mushotzky, Richard; Privon, George C.; Rojas, Alejandra F.; Sani, Eleonora; Schawinski, Kevin; Veilleux, Sylvain
    We present measurements of broad emission lines and virial estimates of supermassive black hole masses (M _{BH} ) for a large sample of ultrahard X-ray-selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) as part of the second data release of the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS/DR2). Our catalog includes M _{BH} estimates for a total of 689 AGNs, determined from the Hα, Hβ, Mg II λ2798, and/or C_{IV} λ1549 broad emission lines. The core sample includes a total of 512 AGNs drawn from the 70 month Swift/BAT all-sky catalog. We also provide measurements for 177 additional AGNs that are drawn from deeper Swift/BAT survey data. We study the links between M _{BH} estimates and line-of-sight obscuration measured from X-ray spectral analysis. We find that broad Hα emission lines in obscured AGNs (Log(N_{H} / cm^{-2} > 22.0) are on average a factor of 8.0_{-2.4}^{+4.1} weaker relative to ultrahard X-ray emission and about 35_{-12}^{,+7} % narrower than those in unobscured sources (i.e.(Log(N_{H} / cm^{-2} > 21.5). This indicates that the innermost part of the broad-line region is preferentially absorbed. Consequently, current single-epoch M _{BH} prescriptions result in severely underestimated (>1 dex) masses for Type 1.9 sources (AGNs with broad Hα but no broad Hβ) and/or sources with Log(N_{H} / cm^{-2} >= 22.0 . We provide simple multiplicative corrections for the observed luminosity and width of the broad Hα component (LbHα and FWHMbHα) in such sources to account for this effect and to (partially) remedy M _{BH} estimates for Type 1.9 objects. As a key ingredient of BASS/DR2, our work provides the community with the data needed to further study powerful AGNs in the low-redshift universe.
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    BASS. XXVI. DR2 Host Galaxy Stellar Velocity Dispersions
    (2022) Koss, Michael J.; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Ricci, Claudio; Oh, Kyuseok; Bauer, Franz E.; Stern, Daniel; Caglar, Turgay; den Brok, Jakob S.; Mushotzky, Richard; Ricci, Federica; Mejia-Restrepo, Julian E.; Lamperti, Isabella; Treister, Ezequiel; Baer, Rudolf E.; Harrison, Fiona; Powell, Meredith C.; Privon, George C.; Riffel, Rogerio; Rojas, Alejandra F.; Schawinski, Kevin; Urry, C. Megan
    We present new central stellar velocity dispersions for 484 Sy 1.9 and Sy 2 from the second data release of the Swift/BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS DR2). This constitutes the largest study of velocity dispersion measurements in X-ray-selected obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) with 956 independent measurements of the Ca ii H and K lambda 3969, 3934 and Mg I lambda 5175 region (3880-5550 angstrom) and the calcium triplet region (8350-8730 angstrom) from 642 spectra mainly from VLT/X-Shooter or Palomar/DoubleSpec. Our sample spans velocity dispersions of 40-360 km s(1), corresponding to 4-5 orders of magnitude in black hole mass (M (BH) = 10(5.5-9.6) M (circle dot)), bolometric luminosity (L (bol) similar to 10(42-46) erg s(-1)), and Eddington ratio (L/L (Edd) similar to 10(-5) to 2). For 281 AGN, our data and analysis provide the first published central velocity dispersions, including six AGN with low-mass black holes (M (BH) = 10(5.5-6.5) M (circle dot)), discovered thanks to high spectral resolution observations (sigma (inst) similar to 25 km s(-1)). The survey represents a significant advance with a nearly complete census of velocity dispersions of hard X-ray-selected obscured AGN with measurements for 99% of nearby AGN (z < 0.1) outside the Galactic plane ( divide b divide > 10 degrees). The BASS AGN have much higher velocity dispersions than the more numerous optically selected narrow-line AGN (i.e., similar to 150 versus similar to 100 km s(-1)) but are not biased toward the highest velocity dispersions of massive ellipticals (i.e., >250 km s(-1)). Despite sufficient spectral resolution to resolve the velocity dispersions associated with the bulges of small black holes (similar to 10(4-5) M (circle dot)), we do not find a significant population of super-Eddington AGN. Using estimates of the black hole sphere of influence from velocity dispersion, direct stellar and gas black hole mass measurements could be obtained with existing facilities for more than similar to 100 BASS AGN.
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    BASS. XXVIII. Near-infrared Data Release 2: High-ionization and Broad Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei
    (2022) den Brok, Jakob S.; Koss, Michael J.; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Stern, Daniel; Cantalupo, Sebastiano; Lamperti, Isabella; Ricci, Federica; Ricci, Claudio; Oh, Kyuseok; Bauer, Franz E.; Riffel, Rogerio; Rodriguez-Ardila, Alberto; Baer, Rudolf; Harrison, Fiona; Ichikawa, Kohei; Mejia-Restrepo, Julian E.; Mushotzky, Richard; Powell, Meredith C.; Boissay-Malaquin, Rozenn; Stalevski, Marko; Treister, Ezequiel; Urry, C. Megan; Veilleux, Sylvain
    We present the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS) Near-infrared Data Release 2 (DR2), a study of 168 nearby ((z) over bar = 0.04, z < 0.6) active galactic nuclei (AGN) from the all-sky Swift Burst Array Telescope X-ray survey observed with the Very Large Telescope (VLT)/X-shooter in the near-infrared (NIR; 0.8-2.4 mu m). We find that 49/109 (45%) Seyfert 2 and 35/58 (60%) Seyfert 1 galaxies observed with VLT/X-shooter show at least one NIR high-ionization coronal line (CL; ionization potential chi > 100 eV). Comparing the emission of the [Si VI] lambda 1.9640 CL with the X-ray emission for the DR2 AGN, we find a significantly tighter correlation, with a lower scatter (0.37 dex) than that for the optical [O III] lambda 5007 line (0.71 dex). We do not find any correlation between CL emission and the X-ray photon index Gamma. We find a clear trend of line blueshifts with increasing ionization potential in several CLs, such as [Si VI] lambda 1.9640, [Si X] lambda 1.4300, [S VIII] lambda 0.9915, and [S IX] lambda 1.2520, indicating the radial structure of the CL region. Finally, we find a strong underestimation bias in black hole mass measurements of Sy 1.9 using broad H alpha due to the presence of significant dust obscuration. In contrast, the broad Pa alpha and Pa beta emission lines are in agreement with the M-sigma relation. Based on the combined DR1 and DR2 X-shooter sample, the NIR BASS sample now comprises 266 AGN with rest-frame NIR spectroscopic observations, the largest set assembled to date.
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    BASS. XXXIV. A Catalog of the Nuclear Millimeter-wave Continuum Emission Properties of AGNs Constrained on Scales ≤ 100-200 pc
    (IOP Publishing Ltd, 2023) Kawamuro, Taiki; Ricci, Claudio; Mushotzky, Richard F.; Imanishi, Masatoshi; Bauer, Franz Erik; Ricci, Federica; Koss, Michael J.; Privon, George C.; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Izumi, Takuma; Ichikawa, Kohei; Rojas, Alejandra F.; Smith, Krista Lynne; Shimizu, Taro; Oh, Kyuseok; den Brok, Jakob S.; Baba, Shunsuke; Balokovic, Mislav; Chang, Chin-Shin; Kakkad, Darshan; Pfeifle, Ryan W.; Temple, Matthew J.; Ueda, Yoshihiro; Harrison, Fiona; Powell, Meredith C.; Stern, Daniel; Urry, Meg; Sanders, David B.
    We present a catalog of the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) continuum properties of 98 nearby (z < 0.05) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) selected from the 70 month Swift/BAT hard-X-ray catalog that have precisely determined X-ray spectral properties and subarcsecond-resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Band 6 (211-275 GHz) observations as of 2021 April. Due to the hard-X-ray (>10 keV) selection, the sample is nearly unbiased for obscured systems at least up to Compton-thick-level obscuration, and provides the largest number of AGNs with high-physical-resolution mm-wave data (less than or similar to 100-200 pc). Our catalog reports emission peak coordinates, spectral indices, and peak fluxes and luminosities at 1.3 mm (230 GHz). Additionally, high-resolution mm-wave images are provided. Using the images and creating radial surface brightness profiles of mm-wave emission, we identify emission extending from the central sources and isolated blob-like emission. Flags indicating the presence of these emission features are tabulated. Among 90 AGNs with significant detections of nuclear emission, 37 AGNs (approximate to 41%) appear to have both or one of extended or blob-like components. We, in particular, investigate AGNs that show well-resolved mm-wave components and find that these seem to have a variety of origins (i.e., a jet, radio lobes, a secondary AGN, stellar clusters, a narrow-line region, galaxy disk, active star formation regions, or AGN-driven outflows), and some components have currently unclear origins.
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    BASS. XXXV. The MBH-σ* Relation of 105 Month Swift-BAT Type 1 AGNs
    (IOP Publishing Ltd, 2023) Caglar, Turgay; Koss, Michael J.; Burtscher, Leonard; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Erdim, M. Kiyami; Mejia-Restrepo, Julian E.; Ricci, Federica; Powell, Meredith C.; Ricci, Claudio; Mushotzky, Richard; Bauer, Franz Erik; Ananna, Tonima T.; Baer, Rudolf E.; Brandl, Bernhard; Brinchmann, Jarle; Harrison, Fiona; Ichikawa, Kohei; Kakkad, Darshan; Oh, Kyuseok; Riffel, Rogerio; Sartori, Lia F.; Smith, Krista L.; Stern, Daniel; Urry, C. Megan
    We present two independent measurements of stellar velocity dispersions (sigma(star)) from the Ca II H+K lambda 3969, 3934 and Mg I b lambda 5183, 5172, 5167 region (3880-5550 angstrom) and the calcium triplet region (8350-8750 angstrom) for 173 hard X-ray-selected Type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs; z <= 0.08) from the 105 month Swift-BAT catalog. We construct one of the largest samples of local Type 1 AGNs that have both single-epoch virial black hole mass (M-BH) estimates and sigma(star) measurements obtained from high spectral resolution data, allowing us to test the usage of such methods for supermassive black hole studies. We find that the two independent sigma(star) measurements are highly consistent with each other, with an average offset of only 0.002 +/- 0.001 dex. Comparing M-BH estimates based on broad emission lines and stellar velocity dispersion measurements, we find that the former is systematically lower by approximate to 0.12 dex. Consequently, Eddington ratios estimated through broad-line MBH determinations are similarly biased (but in the opposite way). We argue that the discrepancy is driven by extinction in the broad-line region. We also find an anticorrelation between the offset from the M-BH-sigma(star) relation and the Eddington ratio. Our sample of Type 1 AGNs shows a shallower M-BH-sigma(star) relation (with a power-law exponent of approximate to 3.5) compared with that of inactive galaxies (with a power-law exponent of approximate to 4.5), confirming earlier results obtained from smaller samples.
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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.
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    BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey - XIX. Type 1 versus type 2 AGN dichotomy from the point of view of ionized outflows
    (2020) Rojas, AF; Sani, E; Gavignaud, I; Ricci, Claudio; Lamperti, I; Koss, M; Trakhtenbrot, B; Schawinski, K; Bauer, Franz Erik; Bischetti, M; Boissay-Malaquin, R; Bongiorno, A; Harrison, F; Kakkad, D; Masetti, N; Ricci, Federica; Shimizu, T; Stalevski, M; Stern, D; Vietri, G; Rojas, AF; Sani, E; Gavignaud, I; Ricci, Claudio; Lamperti, I; Koss, M; Trakhtenbrot, B; Schawinski, K; Bauer, Franz Erik; Bischetti, M; Boissay-Malaquin, R; Bongiorno, A; Harrison, F; Kakkad, D; Masetti, N; Ricci, Federica; Shimizu, T; Stalevski, M; Stern, D; Vietri, G
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    Black hole scaling relations of active and quiescent galaxies: Addressing selection effects and constraining virial factors
    (2019) Shankar, Francesco; Bernardi, Mariangela; Richardson, Kayleigh; Marsden, Christopher; Sheth, Ravi K.; Allevato, Viola; Graziani, Luca; Mezcua, Mar; Ricci, Federica; Penny, Samantha J.; La Franca, Fabio; Pacucci, Fabio
    Local samples of quiescent galaxies with dynamically measured black hole masses (M-bh) may suffer from an angular resolution-related selection effect, which could bias the observed scaling relations between M-bh and host galaxy properties away from the intrinsic relations. In particular, previous work has shown that the observed M-bh-M-star relation is more strongly biased than the M-bh-sigma relation. Local samples of active galactic nuclei (AGN) do not suffer from this selection effect, as in these samples M-bh is estimated from megamasers and/or reverberation mapping-based techniques. With the exception of megamasers, M-bh estimates in these AGN samples are proportional to a virial coefficient f(vir). Direct modelling of the broad-line region suggests that f(vir) similar to 3.5. However, this results in an M-bh-M-star relation for AGN, which lies below and is steeper than the one observed for quiescent black hole samples. A similar though milder trend is seen for the M-bh-sigma relation. Matching the high-mass end of the M-bh-M-star and M-bh-sigma relations observed in quiescent samples requires f(vir) greater than or similar to 15 and f(vir) greater than or similar to 7, respectively. On the other hand, f(vir) similar to 3.5 yields M-bh-sigma and M-bh-M-star relations for AGN, which are remarkably consistent with the expected 'intrinsic' correlations for quiescent samples (i.e. once account has been made of the angular resolution-related selection effect), providing additional evidence that the sample of local quiescent black holes is biased. We also show that, as is the case for quiescent black holes, the M-bh-M-star scaling relation of AGN is driven by sigma, thus providing additional key constraints to black hole-galaxy co-evolution models.
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    Constraining black hole-galaxy scaling relations and radiative efficiency from galaxy clustering
    (2020) Shankar, Francesco; Allevato, Viola; Bernardi, Mariangela; Marsden, Christopher; Lapi, Andrea; Menci, Nicola; Grylls, Philip J.; Krumpe, Mirko; Zanisi, Lorenzo; Ricci, Federica; La Franca, Fabio; Baldi, Ranieri D.; Moreno, Jorge; Sheth, Ravi K.
    The masses of supermassive black holes are observed to increase with either the total mass or the mean (random) velocity of the stars in their host galaxies. The origin of these correlations remains elusive due to observational systematics and biases that severely limit our knowledge of the local demography of supermassive black holes. Here, we show that the large-scale spatial distribution of local active galactic nuclei (AGN) can constrain the shape and normalization of the black hole-stellar mass relation, thus bypassing resolution-related observational biases. In turn, our results can set more stringent constraints on the AGN radiative efficiency, epsilon. For currently accepted values of the AGN obscured fractions and bolometric corrections, our estimated local supermassive black hole mass density favours mean epsilon values of similar to 10-20%, suggesting that the vast majority of supermassive black holes are spinning moderately to rapidly. With large-scale AGN surveys coming online, our methodology will enable even tighter constraints on the fundamental parameters that regulate the growth of supermassive black holes.
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    Optical characterization of WISE selected blazar candidates
    (2019) de Menezes, Raniere; Pena-Herazo, Harold A.; Marchesini, Ezequiel J.; D'Abrusco, Raffaele; Masetti, Nicola; Nemmen, Rodrigo; Massaro, Francesco; Ricci, Federica; Landoni, Marco; Paggi, Alessandro; Smith, Howard A.
    Context. Over the last decade more than five thousand gamma-ray sources have been detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Given the positional uncertainty of the telescope, nearly 30% of these sources remain without an obvious counterpart at lower energies. This has motivated the release of new catalogs of gamma-ray counterpart candidates and several follow up campaigns in the last decade.
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    Probing black hole accretion tracks, scaling relations, and radiative efficiencies from stacked X-ray active galactic nuclei
    (2020) Shankar, Francesco; Weinberg, David H.; Marsden, Christopher; Grylls, Philip J.; Bernardi, Mariangela; Yang, Guang; Moster, Benjamin; Fu, Hao; Carraro, Rosamaria; Alexander, David M.; Allevato, Viola; Ananna, Tonima T.; Bongiorno, Angela; Calderone, Giorgio; Civano, Francesca; Daddi, Emanuele; Delvecchio, Ivan; Duras, Federica; La Franca, Fabio; Lapi, Andrea; Lu, Youjun; Menci, Nicola; Mezcua, Mar; Ricci, Federica; Rodighiero, Giulia; Sheth, Ravi K.; Suh, Hyewon; Villforth, Carolin; Zanisi, Lorenzo
    The masses of supermassive black holes at the centres of local galaxies appear to be tightly correlated with the mass and velocity dispersions of their galactic hosts. However, the local M-bh-M-star relation inferred from dynamically measured inactive black holes is up to an order-of-magnitude higher than some estimates from active black holes, and recent work suggests that this discrepancy arises from selection bias on the sample of dynamical black hole mass measurements. In this work, we combine X-ray measurements of the mean black hole accretion luminosity as a function of stellar mass and redshift with empirical models of galaxy stellar mass growth, integrating over time to predict the evolving M-bh-M-star relation. The implied relation is nearly independent of redshift, indicating that stellar and black hole masses grow, on average, at similar rates. Matching the de-biased local M-bh-M-star relation requires a mean radiative efficiency epsilon greater than or similar to 0.15, in line with theoretical expectations for accretion on to spinning black holes. However, matching the 'raw' observed relation for inactive black holes requires epsilon similar to 0.02, far below theoretical expectations. This result provides independent evidence for selection bias in dynamically estimated black hole masses, a conclusion that is robust to uncertainties in bolometric corrections, obscured active black hole fractions, and kinetic accretion efficiency. For our fiducial assumptions, they favour moderate-to-rapid spins of typical supermassive black holes, to achieve epsilon similar to 0.12-0.20. Our approach has similarities to the classic Soltan analysis, but by using galaxy-based data instead of integrated quantities we are able to focus on regimes where observational uncertainties are minimized.
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    Significant Suppression of Star Formation in Radio-quiet AGN Host Galaxies with Kiloparsec-scale Radio Structures
    (2020) Smith, Krista Lynne; Koss, Michael; Mushotzky, Richard; Wong, O. Ivy; Shimizu, T. Taro; Ricci, Claudio; Ricci, Federica
    We conducted 22 GHz 1 '' Jansky Very Large Array imaging of 100 radio-quiet X-ray-selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) from the Swift-Burst Array Telescope (Swift-BAT) survey. We find AGN-driven kiloparsec-scale radio structures inconsistent with pure star formation in 11 AGN. The host galaxies of these AGN lie significantly below the star-forming main sequence, indicating suppressed star formation. While these radio structures tend to be physically small compared to the host galaxy, the global star formation rate of the host is affected. We evaluate the energetics of the radio structures interpreted first as immature radio jets, and then as consequences of an AGN-driven radiative outflow, and compare them to two criteria for successful feedback: the ability to remove the CO-derived molecular gas mass from the galaxy gravitational potential and the kinetic energy transfer to molecular clouds leading to v(cloud) > sigma(*). In most cases, the jet interpretation is insufficient to provide the energy necessary to cause the star formation suppression. Conversely, the wind interpretation provides ample energy in all but one case. We conclude that it is more likely that the observed suppression of star formation in the global host galaxy is due to interstellar medium interactions of a radiative outflow, rather than a small-scale radio jet.
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    Stormy Weather in 3C 196.1 : Nuclear Outbursts and Merger Events Shape the Environment of the Hybrid Radio Galaxy 3C 196.1
    (2018) Ricci, Federica; Lovisari, L.; Kraft, R. P.; Massaro, F.; Paggi, A.; Liuzzo, E.; Tremblay, G.; Forman, W. R.; Baum, S.; O’Dea, C. O.; Wilkes, B.
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    The Complex Gaseous and Stellar Environments of the Nearby Dual Active Galactic Nucleus Mrk 739
    (2021) Tubín, Dusán ; Treister, Ezequiel ; D’Ago, Giuseppe ; Venturi, Giacomo ; Bauer, Franz E. ; Privon, George C. ; Koss, Michael J. ; Ricci, Federica ; Comerford, Julia M. ; Müller-Sánchez, Francisco
    We present integral field spectroscopic observations of the nearby (z similar to 0.03) dual active galactic nuclei (AGNs) Mrk 739, whose projected nuclear separation is similar to 3.4 kpc, obtained with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer at the Very Large Telescope. We find that the galaxy has an extended AGN-ionized emission-line region extending up to similar to 20 kpc away from the nuclei, while star-forming regions are more centrally concentrated within 2-3 kpc. We model the kinematics of the ionized gas surrounding the eastern nucleus using a circular disk profile, resulting in a peak velocity of 237(28)(+26) km s(-1) at a distance of similar to 1.2 kpc. The enclosed dynamical mass within 1.2 kpc is logM(M-circle dot) = 10.20 +/- 0.06, similar to 1000 times larger than the estimated supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass of Mrk 739E. The morphology and dynamics of the system are consistent with an early stage of the collision, where the foreground galaxy (Mrk 739W) is a young star-forming galaxy in an ongoing first passage with its background companion (Mrk 739E). Since the SMBH in Mrk 739W does not show evidence of being rapidly accreting, we claim that the northern spiral arms of Mrk 739W are ionized by the nuclear activity of Mrk 739E.