Statistical properties of local active galactic nuclei inferred from the RXTE 3-20 keV all-sky survey
Abstract
We compiled a sample of 95 AGNs serendipitously detected in the 3-20 keV band at Galactic latitude |b|>10 during the RXTE slew survey (XSS, Revnivtsev et al.), and utilize it to study the statistical properties of the local population of AGNs, including X-ray luminosity function and absorption distribution. We find that among low X-ray luminosity (Lx < 1043.5 erg/s) AGNs, the ratio of absorbed (characterized by intrinsic absorption in the range 1022 cm-2 < NH < 1024 cm-2) and unabsorbed (NH < 1022 cm-2) objects is 2:1, while this ratio drops to less than 1:5 for higher luminosity AGNs. The summed X-ray output of AGNs with Lx > 1041 erg/s estimated here is smaller than the earlier estimated total X-ray volume emissivity in the local Universe, suggesting that a comparable X-ray flux may be produced together by lower luminosity AGNs, non-active galaxies and clusters of galaxies. Finally, we present a sample of 35 AGN candidates, composed of the unidentified XSS sources.
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