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Published November 20, 2017 | Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey. I. Spectral Measurements, Derived Quantities, and AGN Demographics

Abstract

We present the first catalog and data release of the Swift-BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey. We analyze optical spectra of the majority of the detected AGNs (77%, 642/836)based on their 14–195 keV emission in the 70-month Swift-BAT all-sky catalog. This includes redshift determination, absorption and emission-line measurements, and black hole mass and accretion rate estimates for the majority of obscured and unobscured AGNs (74%, 473/642), with 340 measured for the first time. With ~90% of sources at z < 0.2, the survey represents a significant advance in the census of hard X-ray-selected AGNs in the local universe. In this first catalog paper, we describe the spectroscopic observations and data sets, and our initial spectral analysis. The FWHMs of the emission lines show broad agreement with the X-ray obscuration (~94%), such that Sy 1–1.8 have N_H < 10^(21.9) cm^(−2), and Seyfert 2 have N_H > 10^(21/9) cm^(−2). Seyfert 1.9, however, show a range of column densities. Compared to narrow-line AGNs in the SDSS, the X-ray-selected AGNs have a larger fraction of dusty host galaxies (Hα/Hβ > 5), suggesting that these types of AGN are missed in optical surveys. Using the [O III] λ5007/Hβ and [N II] λ6583/Hα emission-line diagnostic, about half of the sources are classified as Seyferts; ~15% reside in dusty galaxies that lack an Hβdetection, but for which the upper limits on line emission imply either a Seyfert or LINER, ~15% are in galaxies with weak or no emission lines despite high-quality spectra, and a few percent each are LINERS, composite galaxies, H II regions, or in known beamed AGNs.

Additional Information

© 2017 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2016 May 20; revised 2017 July 6; accepted 2017 July 7; published 2017 November 17. M.K. acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) through the Ambizione fellowship grant PZ00P2_154799/1 and SNSF grant PP00P2 138979/1, and K.O. and K.S. acknowledge support from the SNSF through Project grant 200021_157021. M.B. acknowledges support from NASA Headquarters under the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship Program, grant NNX14AQ07H. Support for the work of E.T. was provided by the Center of Excellence in Astrophysics and Associated Technologies (PFB 06), by the FONDECYT regular grant 1120061 and by the CONICYT Anillo project ACT1101. M.K. would like to thank Di Harmer at the NOAO for teaching him how to use the Goldcam spectrograph on his first optical spectroscopy run. This paper used archival optical spectroscopic data from several telescopes. Kitt Peak National Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The Kitt Peak National Observatory observations were obtained using MD-TAC time as part of the thesis of M.K. (2008A-0393,2009B-0295) and L.W. at the University of Maryland. We also acknowledge the following people who assisted in the Palomar observations presented herein: Kristen Boydstun, Clarke Esmerian, Carla Fuentes, David Girou, Ana Glidden, Hyunsung Jun, George Lansbury, Ting-Ni Lu, Alejandra Melo, Eric Mukherjee, Becky Tang, and Dominika Wylezalek. This paper uses observations made at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). Data in this paper were acquired through the Gemini Science Archive and processed using the Gemini IRAF package and Gemini python. Data from Gemini programs GN-2009B-Q-114, GN-2010A-Q-35, GN-2011A-Q-81, GN-2011B-Q-96, GN-2012A-Q-28, GN-2012B-Q-25, GS-2010A-Q-54, and GS-2011B-Q80 were used in this publication and included NOAO-granted community-access time for 2011B-0559 (PI Koss). This work is based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory and processed using the Gemini IRAF package, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (Argentina), and Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brazil). The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We acknowledge the efforts of the staff of the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), who developed the 6dF instrument and carried out the observations for the survey. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain. Funding for SDSS-III has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. The SDSS-III web site is http://www.sdss3.org/. SDSS-III is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions of the SDSS-III Collaboration including the University of Arizona, the Brazilian Participation Group, Brookhaven National Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Florida, the French Participation Group, the German Participation Group, Harvard University, the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, the Michigan State/Notre Dame/JINA Participation Group, Johns Hopkins University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, New Mexico State University, New York University, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Portsmouth, Princeton University, the Spanish Participation Group, University of Tokyo, University of Utah, Vanderbilt University, University of Virginia, University of Washington, and Yale University. Finally, we wish to acknowledge several community software resources and websites. IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This research made use of Astropy, a community-developed core Python package for Astronomy (Robitaille et al. 2013). This research made use of APLpy, an open-source plotting package for Python hosted at http://aplpy.github.com. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. Facilities: Swift - Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission, UH:2.2m - University of Hawaii 2.2 meter Telescope, Sloan - Sloan Digital Sky Survey Telescope, KPNO:2.1m - Kitt Peak National Observatory's 2.1 meter Telescope, FLWO:1.5m (FAST) - , Shane (Kast Double spectrograph) - , CTIO:1.5m - Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory's 1.5 meter Telescope, Hale - Palomar Observatory's 5.1m Hale Telescope, Gemini:South - Gemini South Telescope, Gemini:Gillett - Gemini South Telescope, Radcliffe - South Africa Astronomical Observatory's 1.9m Radclifffe Telescope, Perkins - Lowell Observatory's 72in Perkins Telescope.

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August 19, 2023
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