Variability-selected active galactic nuclei from supernova search in the Chandra deep field south

Abstract

Variability is a property shared by virtually all active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and was adopted as a criterion for their selection using data from multi epoch surveys. Low Luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs) are contaminated by the light of their host galaxies, and cannot therefore be detected by the usual colour techniques. For this reason, their evolution in cosmic time is poorly known. Consistency with the evolution derived from X-ray detected samples has not been clearly established so far, also because the low luminosity population consists of a mixture of different object types. LLAGNs can be detected by the nuclear optical variability of extended objects. Several variability surveys have been, or are being, conducted for the detection of supernovae (SNe). We propose to re-analyse these SNe data using a variability criterion optimised for AGN detection, to select a new AGN sample and study its properties. We analysed images acquired with the wide field imager at the 2.2 m ESO/MPI telescope, in the framework of the STRESS supernova survey. We selected the AXAF field centred on the Chandra Deep Field South where, besides the deep X-ray survey, various optical data exist, originating in the EIS and COMBO-17 photometric surveys and the spectroscopic database of GOODS. We obtained a catalogue of 132 variable AGN candidates. Several of the candidates are X-ray sources. We compare our results with an HST variability study of X-ray and IR detected AGNs, finding consistent results. The relatively high fraction of confirmed AGNs in our sample (60%) allowed us to extract a list of reliable AGN candidates for spectroscopic follow-up observations.

language revised, table reformatted. To Appear on A&A

References in corpus (47)

• The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey: Initial Results From Optical and Near-Infrared Imaging
• Cosmological Evolution of the Hard X-ray AGN Luminosity Function and the Origin of the Hard X-ray Background
• The SDSS Quasar Survey: Quasar Luminosity Function from Data Release Three
• The Chandra Deep Field-North Survey. XIII. 2 Ms Point-Source Catalogs
• The Chandra Deep Field South: the 1 Million Second
• The Chandra Deep Field South: Optical Spectroscopy I
• The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - I. The Optical QSO Luminosity Function
• The Ensemble Photometric Variability of ~25000 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The HELLAS2XMM survey. VII. The hard X-ray luminosity function of AGN up to z=4: more absorbed AGN at low luminosities and high redshifts
• A catalogue of the Chandra Deep Field South with multi-colour classification and photometric redshifts from COMBO-17
• High-Redshift Quasars Found in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Commissioning Data IV: Luminosity Function from the Fall Equatorial Stripe Sampl
• The GOODS-MUSIC sample: a multicolour catalog of near-IR selected galaxies in the GOODS-South field
• The ESSENCE Supernova Survey: Survey Optimization, Observations, and Supernova Photometry
• The Extended Chandra Deep Field-South Survey. Chandra Point-Source Catalogs
• Infrared power-law galaxies in the Chandra Deep Field South: AGN and ULIRGs
• The Radio-Loud Fraction of Quasars is a Strong Function of Redshift and Optical Luminosity
• Optical Variability in Active Galactic Nuclei: Starbursts or Disk Instabilities?
• The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - V. The 10k catalogue
• The evolution of faint AGN between z~1 and z~5 from the COMBO-17 survey
• The Murmur of the Sleeping Black Hole: Detection of Nuclear Ultraviolet Variability in LINER Galaxies
• ESO Imaging Survey. Deep Public Survey: Multi-Color Optical Data for the Chandra Deep Field South
• Structure Function Analysis of Long Term Quasar Variability
• Supernova rates from the Southern inTermediate Redshift ESO Supernova Search (STRESS)
• The VVDS type-1 AGN sample: The faint end of the luminosity function
• 531 new spectroscopic redshifts from the CDFS and a test on the cosmological relevance of the GOODS-South field
• The performance of the blue prime focus Large Binocular Camera at the Large Binocular Telescope
• Variability-Selected Quasars in MACHO Project Magellanic Cloud Fields
• High-Redshift Quasars Found in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Commissioning Data VI. Sloan Digital Sky Survey Spectrograph Observations
• The Ensemble Variability Properties of Faint QSOs
• QSO variability: probing the Starburst model
• Quasar Spectral Slope Variability in the Optical Band
• Death rate of massive stars at redshift ~0.3
• Long Term Variability of SDSS Quasars
• The distribution of absorption in AGN detected in the XMM-Newton observations of the CDFS
• Timescale of variation and the size of the accretion disc in active galactic nuclei
• A V-Band Survey for Variable Galactic Nuclei in the Hubble Deep Field
• Variable Extended Objects in SA 57
• Continuum Variability of Active Galactic Nuclei in the Optical-UV Range
• X-ray selected starbursts in the GOODS-North
• The DEEP Groth Strip Survey VI. Spectroscopic, Variability, and X-ray Detection of AGN
• The Properties and Redshift Evolution of Intermediate-Luminosity Off-Nuclear X-ray Sources in the Chandra Deep Fields
• Formation and Evolution of Supermassive Black Holes in Galactic Centers: Observational Constraints
• Optical Variability of Infrared Power Law-Selected Galaxies & X-ray Sources in the GOODS-South Field
• Lower Mass Black Holes in the GOODS? Off-nuclear X-ray Sources
• XMM-Newton observation of the Chandra Deep Field-South: Statistical treatment of faint source spectra
• An X-ray Survey in SA 57 with XMM-Newton
• Optical Spectroscopy of Active Galactic Nuclei in SA57

Cited by in corpus (33)

• Evidence for Wide-Spread AGN Driven Outflows in the Most Massive z~1-2 Star Forming Galaxies
• The KMOS^3D Survey: Demographics and Properties of Galactic Outflows at z = 0.6 - 2.7
• AGN X-ray variability in the XMM-COSMOS survey
• Variability Selected Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei in the 4 Ms Chandra Deep Field-South
• The Chandra Deep Fields: Lifting the Veil on Distant Active Galactic Nuclei and X-Ray Emitting Galaxies
• A new extensive catalog of optically variable AGN in the GOODS Fields and a new statistical approach to variability selection
• Variability-selected Active Galactic Nuclei in the VST-SUDARE/VOICE Survey of the COSMOS Field
• Lyman continuum leaking AGN in the SSA22 field
• Dwarf AGNs from Optical Variability for the Origins of Seeds (DAVOS): Insights from the Dark Energy Survey Deep Fields
• Variability-based AGN selection using image subtraction in the SDSS and LSST era
• Variability and Multiwavelength Detected AGN in the GOODS Fields
• Optically variable active galactic nuclei in the 3 yr VST survey of the COSMOS field
• SUDARE-VOICE variability-selection of Active Galaxies in the Chandra Deep Field South and the SERVS/SWIRE region
• Robust Identification of Active Galactic Nuclei through HST Optical Variability in GOODS-S: Comparison with the X-ray and mid-IR Selected Samples
• A search for variable and transient radio sources in the extended Chandra Deep Field South at 5.5 GHz
• A forward modelling approach to AGN variability -- Method description and early applications
• The SEDs, Host Galaxies and Environments of Variability Selected AGN in GOODS-S
• Genuine Retrieval of the AGN Host Stellar Population (GRAHSP)
• Extending the variability selection of active galactic nuclei in the W-CDF-S and SERVS/SWIRE region
• A Multi-wavelength Survey of AGN in Massive Clusters: AGN Detection and Cluster AGN Fraction
• Spectroscopic follow-up of variability-selected active galactic nuclei in the Chandra Deep Field South
• Variability-selected low-luminosity active galactic nuclei candidates in the 7 Ms Chandra Deep Field-South
• Continuum optical-UV and X-ray variability of AGN: current results and future challenges
• Active Galactic Nuclei Discovered in the Kepler Mission
• The XMM Deep Survey in the CDF-S VII. UV catalogue of the Optical Monitor observations
• Selection of AGN candidates in the GOODS-South Field through SPITZER/MIPS 24 $\mu$m variability
• Selection of optically variable active galactic nuclei via a random forest algorithm
• Exploratory X-Ray Monitoring of Luminous Radio-Quiet Quasars at High Redshift: Extended Time-Series Analyses and Stacked Imaging Spectroscopy
• Increasing AGN sample completeness using long-term near-infrared variability
• Galaxy Optical Variability of Virgo Cluster: New Tracer for Environmental Influences on Galaxies
• A new search for variability-selected active galaxies within the VST SUDARE-VOICE survey: the Chandra Deep Field South and the SERVS-SWIRE area
• AGILE: an end-to-end Rubin-LSST simulation of AGNs, galaxies, and stars I. Software description and first data release
• Identification of quasars variable over long time scales from infrared surveys. Ensemble variability and structure function properties