Browsing by Author "Stern, D."

Now showing 1 - 20 of 29
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    A hard X-ray view of luminous and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies in GOALS - I. AGN obscuration along the merger sequence
    (2021) Ricci, C.; Privon, G. C.; Pfeifle, R. W.; Armus, L.; Iwasawa, K.; Torres-Albà, N.; Satyapal, S.; Bauer, F. E.; Treister, E.; Ho, L. C.; Aalto, S.; Arévalo, P.; Barcos-Muñoz, L.; Charmandaris, V.; Diaz-Santos, T.; Evans, A. S.; Gao, T.; Inami, H.; Koss, M. J.; Lansbury, G.; Linden, S. T.; Medling, A.; Sanders, D. B.; Song, Y.; Stern, D.; U, V.; Ueda, Y.; Yamada, S.
    The merger of two or more galaxies can enhance the inflow of material from galactic scales into the close environments of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), obscuring and feeding the supermassive black hole (SMBH). Both recent simulations and observations of AGN in mergers have confirmed that mergers are related to strong nuclear obscuration. However, it is still unclear how AGN obscuration evolves in the last phases of the merger process. We study a sample of 60 luminous and ultra-luminous IR galaxies (U/LIRGs) from the GOALS sample observed by NuSTAR. We find that the fraction of AGNs that are Compton thick (CT;N-H >= 10(24)cm(-2) ) peaks at at a late merger stage, prior to coalescence, when the nuclei have projected separations (d(sep)) of 0.4-6 kpc. A similar peak is also observed in the median N-H [[(1.6 +/- 0.5) x 10(24) cm(-2)].]. The vast majority (85(-9)(+7) per cent)) of the AGNs in the final merger stages (d(sep) less than or similar to 10 kpc) are heavily obscured (N-H = 10(23) cm(-2)), and the median N-H of the accreting SMBHs in our sample is systematically higher than that of local hard X-ray-selected AGN, regardless of the merger stage. This implies that these objects have very obscured nuclear environments, with the gas almost completely covering the AGN in late mergers. CT AGNs tend to have systematically higher absorption-corrected X-ray luminosities than less obscured sources. This could either be due to an evolutionary effect, with more obscured sources accreting more rapidly because they have more gas available in their surroundings, or to a selection bias. The latter scenario would imply that we are still missing a large fraction of heavily obscured, lower luminosity (L2-10 less than or similar to 10(43) erg s(-1)) AGNs in U/LIRGs.
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    A New Compton-thick AGN in Our Cosmic Backyard: Unveiling the Buried Nucleus in NGC 1448 with NuSTAR
    (2017) Annuar, A.; Alexander, D.; Gandhi, P.; Lansbury, G.; Asmus, D.; Ballantyne, D.; Bauer, Franz Erik; Boggs, S.; Boorman, P.; Brandt W.; Brightman, M.|Christensen, F.; Craig, W.; Farrah, D.; Goulding, A.; Hailey, C.; Harrison, F.; Koss, M.; Lamassa, S.; Murray, S.; Ricci, Claudio; Rosario, D.; Stanley, F.; Stern, D.; Zhang, W.
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    An extragalactic spectroscopic survey of the SSA22 field
    (2015) Saez, C.; Lehmer, B. D.; Bauer, Franz Erik; Stern, D.; Gonzales, A.; Rreza, I.; Alexander, D. M.; Matsuda, Y.; Geach, J. E.; Harrison, F. A.
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    BASS. XLII. The Relation between the Covering Factor of Dusty Gas and the Eddington Ratio in Nearby Active Galactic Nuclei
    Ricci, C.; Ichikawa, K.; Stalevski, M.; Kawamuro, T.; Yamada, S.; Ueda, Y.; Mushotzky, R.; Privon, G. C.; Koss, M. J.; Trakhtenbrot, B.; Fabian, A. C.; Ho, L. C.; Asmus, D.; Bauer, Franz Erik; Chang, C. S.; Gupta, K. K.; Oh, K.; Powell, M.; Pfeifle, R. W.; Rojas, A.; Ricci, F.; Temple, M. J.; Toba, Y.; Tortosa, A.; Treister, Ezequiel; Harrison, F.; Stern, D.; Urry, C. M.
    Accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) located at the centers of galaxies are typically surrounded by large quantities of gas and dust. The structure and evolution of this circumnuclear material can be studied at different wavelengths, from the submillimeter to the X-ray. Recent X-ray studies have shown that the covering factor of the obscuring material tends to decrease with increasing Eddington ratio, likely due to radiative feedback on dusty gas. Here we study a sample of 549 nearby (z less than or similar to 0.1) hard X-ray (14-195 keV) selected nonblazar active galactic nuclei (AGN) and use the ratio between the AGN infrared and bolometric luminosity as a proxy of the covering factor. We find that, in agreement with what has been found by X-ray studies of the same sample, the covering factor decreases with increasing Eddington ratio. We also confirm previous findings that showed that obscured AGN typically have larger covering factors than unobscured sources. Finally, we find that the median covering factors of AGN located in different regions of the column density-Eddington ratio diagram are in good agreement with what would be expected from a radiation-regulated growth of SMBHs.
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    BAT AGN spectroscopic survey – XV: the high frequency radio cores of ultra-hard X-ray selected AGN
    (OUP, 2019) Smith, K. L.; Mushotzky, R. F.; Koss, M.; Trakhtenbrot, B.; Ricci, Claudio; Wong, O. I.; Bauer, F. E.; Ricci, F.; Vogel, S.; Stern, D.; Powell, M. C.; Urry, C. M.; Harrison, F.; Mejia-Restrepo, J.; Oh, K.; Baek, J.; Chun, A.
    We have conducted 22 GHz radio imaging at 1 arcsec resolution of 100 low-redshift AGN selected at 14–195 keV by the Swift-BAT. We find a radio core detection fraction of 96 per cent, much higher than lower frequency radio surveys. Of the 96 radio-detected AGN, 55 have compact morphologies, 30 have morphologies consistent with nuclear star formation, and 11 have sub-kpc to kpc-scale jets. We find that the total radio power does not distinguish between nuclear star formation and jets as the origin of the radio emission. For 87 objects, we use optical spectroscopy to test whether AGN physical parameters are distinct between radio morphological types. We find that X-ray luminosities tend to be higher if the 22 GHz morphology is jet-like, but find no significant difference in other physical parameters. We find that the relationship between the X-ray and core radio luminosities is consistent with the LR/LX ∼ 10−5 of coronally active stars. We further find that the canonical fundamental planes of black hole activity systematically overpredict our radio luminosities, particularly for objects with star formation morphologies.
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    Broad-band X-ray spectral analysis of the Seyfert 1 galaxy GRS 1734-292
    (2017) Tortosa, A.; Marinucci, A.; Matt, G.; Bianchi, S.; La Franca, F.; Ballantyne, D. R.; Boorman, P. G.; Fabian, A. C.; Farrah, D.; Ricci, Claudio; Fuerst, F.; Gandhi, P.; Harrison, F. A.; Koss, M. J.; Stern, D.; Ursini, F.; Walton, D. J.
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    Constraining X-ray reflection in the low-luminosity AGN NGC3718 using NuSTAR and XMM-Newton
    (2020) Diaz, Y.; Arevalo, P.; Hernandez Garcia, L.; Bassani, L.; Malizia, A.; Gonzalez Martin, O.; Ricci, Claudio; Matt, G.; Stern, D.; Bauer, Franz Erik; May, D.; Zezas, A .
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    Determining the covering factor of compton-thick active galactic nuclei with NuSTAR
    (2015) Brightman, M.; Balokovic, M.; Stern, D.; Arevalo, P.; Ballantyne, D. R.; Bauer, Franz Erik; Bogg, S. E.; Craig, W. W.; Christensen, F. E.; Comastri, A.; Gandhi, P.; Hailey, C. J.; Harrison, F. A.; Hickox, R. C.; Koss, M.; Lamassa, S.; Fuerst, F.; Puccetti, S.; Rivers, E.; Vasudevan, R.; Walton, D. J.; Zhang, W. W.
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    Do some AGN lack X-ray emission?
    (2016) Simmonds, C.; Bauer, Franz Erik; Thuan, T.; Izotov, Y.; Stern, D.; Harrison, F.
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    Hard X-ray emission of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 6240 as observed by NuSTAR
    (2016) Puccetti, S.; Comastri, A.; Bauer, Franz Erik; Brandt, W.; Fiore, E.; Harrison, F.; Luo, B.; Stern, D.; Urry, C.; Alexander, D.; Annuar, A.; Arevalo, P.; Balokovic, M.; Boggs, S.; Brightman, M.; Craig, W.; Ricci, Claudio
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    HOT DUST OBSCURED GALAXIES WITH EXCESS BLUE LIGHT : DUAL AGN OR SINGLE AGN UNDER EXTREME CONDITIONS?
    (2016) Assef, R.; Walton, D.; Brightman, M.; Stern, D.; Alexander, D.; Bauer, Franz Erik; Blain, A.; Diaz, T.; Eisenhardt, P.; Finkelstein, S.; Hickox, R.; Tsai, C.; Wu, J.
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    Initial results from NuSTAR observations of the Norma ARM
    (2014) Bodaghee, A.; Tomsick, J.; Krivonos, R.; Stern, D.; Bauer, Franz Erik; Fornasini, F.; Barriere, N.; Boggs, S.,
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    Investigating the Evolution of the Dual AGN System ESO 509-IG066.
    (2017) Kosec, P.; Ricci, Claudio; Treister, Ezequiel; Privon, G. C.; Brightman, M.; Stern, D.; Müller-Sánchez, Francisco; Koss, M.; Oh, K.; Assef T., Roberto; Gandhi, P.
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    Nustar and suzaku X-Ray spectroscopy of NGC 4151: evidence for reflection from the inner accretion disk
    (2015) Keck, M.; Brenneman, L.; Ballantyne, D.; Bauer, Franz Erik; Boggs, S.; Christensen, F.; Craig, W.; Dauser, T.; Elvis, M.; Fabian, A.; Fuerst, F.; García, J.; Grefenstette, B.; Hailey, C.; Harrison, F.; Madejski, G.; Marinucci, A.; Matt, G.; Reynolds, C.; Stern, D.; Walton, D.; Zoghbi, A.
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    NuSTAR AND XMM-NEWTON OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS, HEAVILY OBSCURED, WISE-SELECTED QUASARS AT Z similar to 2
    (2014) Stern, D.; Lansbury, G.; Assef, R.; Brandt, W.; Alexander, D.; Ballantyne, D.; Balokovic, M.; Bauer, Franz Erik; Benford, D.
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    NuSTAR catches the unveiling nucleus of NGC 1068
    (2016) Bauer, Franz Erik; Ricci, Claudio; Marinucci, A.; Bianchi, S.; Matt, G.; Alexander, D.; Balokovic, M.; Brandt, W.; Gandhi, P.; Guainazzi, M.; Harrison, F.; Iwasawa, K.; Koss, M.; Madsen, K.; Nicastro, F.; Puccetti, S.; Stern, D.; Walton, D.
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    NuSTAR J033202-2746.8: Direct Constraints on the Compton Reflection in a Heavily Obscured Quasar at z ≈ 2.
    (2014) Del Moro, A.; Bauer, Franz Erik; Treister, Ezequiel; Mullaney, J. R.; Alexander, D. M.; Comastri, A.; Stern, D.; Civano, F.; Ranalli, P.; Vignali, C.; Aird, J. A.
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    NuSTAR observations of four nearby X-ray faint AGNs: low luminosity or heavy obscuration?
    (OUP, 2020) Annuar, A.; Alexander, D. M.; Gandhi, P.; Lansbury, G. B.; Asmus, D.; Balokovic, M.; Ballantyne, D. R.; Bauer, Franz Erik; Boorman, P. G.; Brandt, W. N.; Brightman, M.; Chen, C. T. J.; Del Moro, A.; Farrah, D.; Harrison, F. A.; Koss, M. J.; Lanz, L.; Marchesi, S.; Masini, A.; Nardini, E.; Ricci, Claudio; Stern, D.; Zappacosta, L.
    We present NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) observations of four active galactic nuclei (AGNs) located within 15 Mpc. These AGNs, namely ESO 121-G6, NGC 660, NGC 3486, and NGC 5195, have observed X-ray luminosities of L 2–10 keV,obs ≲ 10 39 erg s −1 , classifying them as low-luminosity AGN (LLAGN). We perform broad-band X-ray spectral analysis for the AGN by combining our NuSTAR data with Chandra or XMM–Newton observations to directly measure their column densities (N H ) and infer their intrinsic power. We complement our X-ray data with archival and new high-angular resolution mid-infrared (mid-IR) data for all objects, except NGC 5195. Based on our X-ray spectral analysis, we found that both ESO 121-G6 and NGC 660 are heavily obscured (N H > 10 23 cm −2 ; L 2–10 keV,int ∼ 10 41 erg s −1 ), and NGC 660 may be Compton thick. We also note that the X-ray flux and spectral slope for ESO 121-G6 have significantly changed over the last decade, indicating significant changes in the obscuration and potentially accretion rate. On the other hand, NGC 3486 and NGC 5195 appear to be unobscured and just mildly obscured, respectively, with L 2–10 keV,int < 10 39 erg s −1 , i.e. genuine LLAGN. Both of the heavily obscured AGNs have L bol > 10 41 erg s −1 and λ Edd ≳ 10 −3 , and are detected in high-angular resolution mid-IR imaging, indicating the presence of obscuring dust on nuclear scale. NGC 3486, however, is undetected in high-resolution mid-IR imaging, and the current data do not provide stringent constraints on the presence or absence of obscuring nuclear dust in the AGN.
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    NuSTAR observations of water megamaser AGN
    (2016) Masini, A.; Comastri, A.; Baloković, M.; Zaw, I.; Puccetti, S.; Ballantyne, D. R.; Bauer, Franz Erik; Boggs, S. E.; Brandt, W. N.; Brightman, M.; Christensen, F. E.; Craig, W. W.; Gandhi, P.; Hailey, C. J.; Harrison, F. A.; Koss, M. J.; Madejski, G.; Ricci, Claudio; Rivers, E.; Stern, D.
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    NuSTAR Observations of WISE J1036+0449, a Galaxy at z~1 Obscured by Hot Dust.
    (2017) Ricci, Claudio; Bauer, Franz Erik; Treister, Ezequiel; Nikutta, R.; Assef T., Roberto; Stern, D.; Alexander, D. M.; Asmus, D.; Ballantyne, D. R.; Blain, A. W.; Boggs, Steven E.