The distribution of absorption in AGN detected in the XMM-Newton observations of the CDFS

Abstract

We have used very deep XMM-Newton observations of the Chandra Deep Field-South to examine the spectral properties of the faint active galactic nucleus (AGN) population. Crucially, redshift measurements are available for 84% (259/309) of the XMM-Newton sample. We have calculated the absorption and intrinsic luminosities of the sample using an extensive Monte Carlo technique incorporating the specifics of the XMM-Newton observations. Twenty-three sources are found to have substantial absorption and intrinsic X-ray luminosities greater than 10^44 erg/s, putting them in the "type-2" QSO regime. We compare the redshift, luminosity and absorption distributions of our sample to the predictions of a range of AGN population models. In contrast to recent findings from ultra-deep Chandra surveys, we find that there is little evidence that the absorption distribution is dependent on either redshift or intrinsic X-ray luminosity. The pattern of absorption in our sample is best reproduced by models in which ~75% of the AGN population is heavily absorbed at all luminosities and redshifts.

24 pages, 18 figures, accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (3)

• X-ray spectral properties of AGN in the Chandra Deep Field South
• X-ray spectra of sources in the 13H XMM-Newton / Chandra deep field
• The Properties and Redshift Evolution of Intermediate-Luminosity Off-Nuclear X-ray Sources in the Chandra Deep Fields

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