The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2023)
Resolving Galactic-scale Obscuration of X-Ray AGNs at z ≳ 1 with COSMOS-Web
- John D. Silverman,
- Vincenzo Mainieri,
- Xuheng Ding,
- Daizhong Liu,
- Knud Jahnke,
- Michaela Hirschmann,
- Jeyhan Kartaltepe,
- Erini Lambrides,
- Masafusa Onoue,
- Benny Trakhtenbrot,
- Eleni Vardoulaki,
- Angela Bongiorno,
- Caitlin Casey,
- Francesca Civano,
- Andreas Faisst,
- Maximilien Franco,
- Steven Gillman,
- Ghassem Gozaliasl,
- Christopher C. Hayward,
- Anton M. Koekemoer,
- Vasily Kokorev,
- Georgios Magdis,
- Stefano Marchesi,
- Robert Michael Rich,
- Martin Sparre,
- Hyewon Suh,
- Takumi Tanaka,
- Francesco Valentino
Affiliations
- John D. Silverman
- ORCiD
- Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI), UTIAS, Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study, University of Tokyo , Chiba, 277-8583, Japan; Department of Astronomy, School of Science, The University of Tokyo , 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan; Center for Data-Driven Discovery, Kavli IPMU (WPI), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo , Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan
- Vincenzo Mainieri
- ORCiD
- European Southern Observatory , Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748, Garching bei Munchen, Germany
- Xuheng Ding
- ORCiD
- Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI), UTIAS, Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study, University of Tokyo , Chiba, 277-8583, Japan
- Daizhong Liu
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik , Giessenbachstraße 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany
- Knud Jahnke
- ORCiD
- Max Planck Institute for Astronomy , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
- Michaela Hirschmann
- ORCiD
- Institute for Physics , Laboratory for Galaxy Evolution and Spectral modelling, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Observatoire de Sauverny, Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
- Jeyhan Kartaltepe
- ORCiD
- Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology , 84 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623, USA
- Erini Lambrides
- ORCiD
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , Code 662, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Masafusa Onoue
- ORCiD
- Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI), UTIAS, Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study, University of Tokyo , Chiba, 277-8583, Japan; Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China
- Benny Trakhtenbrot
- ORCiD
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University , Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
- Eleni Vardoulaki
- ORCiD
- Thüringer Landessternwarte , Sternwarte 5, D-07778 Tautenburg, Germany
- Angela Bongiorno
- INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , Via Frascati 33, I-00078 Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
- Caitlin Casey
- ORCiD
- The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway Blvd Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Francesca Civano
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics—Harvard & Smithsonian , Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Andreas Faisst
- ORCiD
- Caltech/IPAC , 1200 E. California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Maximilien Franco
- ORCiD
- The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway Blvd Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Steven Gillman
- ORCiD
- Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) , Denmark; DTU-Space, Technical University of Denmark , Elektrovej 327, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
- Ghassem Gozaliasl
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Helsinki , P.O. Box 64, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland
- Christopher C. Hayward
- ORCiD
- Center for Computational Astrophysics , Flatiron Institute, 162 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
- Anton M. Koekemoer
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Vasily Kokorev
- ORCiD
- Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen , P.O. Box 800, 9700AV Groningen, The Netherlands
- Georgios Magdis
- ORCiD
- DTU-Space, Technical University of Denmark , Elektrovej 327, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark; Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) , Jagtvej 128, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark; Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
- Stefano Marchesi
- ORCiD
- Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università degli Studi di Bologna , via Gobetti 93/2, I-40129 Bologna, Italy; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University , Kinard Lab of Physics, Clemson, SC 29634, USA; INAF—Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna , Via Piero Gobetti, 93/3, I-40129, Bologna, Italy
- Robert Michael Rich
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy , UCLA, PAB 430 Portola Plaza, Box 951547, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Martin Sparre
- Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Potsdam , Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, D-14476 Golm, Germany; Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP) , An der Sternwarte 16, D-14482 Potsdam, Germany
- Hyewon Suh
- ORCiD
- Gemini Observatory/NSF's NOIRLab , 670 N. A’ohoku Place, Hilo, Hawaii, HI 96720, USA
- Takumi Tanaka
- Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI), UTIAS, Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study, University of Tokyo , Chiba, 277-8583, Japan; Department of Astronomy, School of Science, The University of Tokyo , 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
- Francesco Valentino
- ORCiD
- European Southern Observatory , Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748, Garching bei Munchen, Germany; Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) , Denmark
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/acdef4
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 951,
no. 2
p. L41
Abstract
A large fraction of the accreting supermassive black hole population is shrouded by copious amounts of gas and dust, particularly in the distant ( z ≳ 1) universe. While much of the obscuration is attributed to a parsec-scale torus, there is a known contribution from the larger-scale host galaxy. Using JWST/NIRCam imaging from the COSMOS-Web survey, we probe the galaxy-wide dust distribution in X-ray selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) up to z ∼ 2. Here, we focus on a sample of three AGNs with their host galaxies exhibiting prominent dust lanes, potentially due to their edge-on alignment. These represent 27% (3 out of 11 with early NIRCam data) of the heavily obscured ( N _H > 10 ^23 cm ^−2 ) AGN population. With limited signs of a central AGN in the optical and near-infrared, the NIRCam images are used to produce reddening maps E ( B − V ) of the host galaxies. We compare the mean central value of E ( B − V ) to the X-ray obscuring column density along the line of sight to the AGN ( N _H ∼ 10 ^23−23.5 cm ^−2 ). We find that the extinction due to the host galaxy is present (0.6 ≲ E ( B − V ) ≲ 0.9; 1.9 ≲ A _V ≲ 2.8) and significantly contributes to the X-ray obscuration at a level of N _H ∼ 10 ^22.5 cm ^−2 assuming an SMC gas-to-dust ratio that amounts to ≲30% of the total obscuring column density. These early results, including three additional cases from CEERS, demonstrate the ability to resolve such dust structures with JWST and separate the different circumnuclear and galaxy-scale obscuring structures.
Keywords
- X-ray active galactic nuclei
- Galactic and extragalactic astronomy
- AGN host galaxies
- Infrared astronomy
