The OPTX Project. II. Hard X-Ray Luminosity Functions of Active Galactic Nuclei for z 5

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 698; no. 1; pp. 380 - 396
• Main Authors: Yencho, B, Barger, A. J, Trouille, L, Winter, L. M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 10-06-2009; IOP
• Subjects: Astronomy; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Galaxy evolution; Active galaxies; Hard x radiation; X-ray galaxies; galaxies: active; galaxies: evolution; Active galaxy nuclei; X-rays: galaxies; Galaxy nuclei; Cosmic x-ray sources; surveys; Luminosity function
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/698/1/380

We use the largest, most uniform, and most spectroscopically complete to faint X-ray flux limits Chandra sample to date to construct hard (2-8 keV) rest-frame X-ray luminosity functions (HXLFs) of spectroscopically identified active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to z ~ 5. In addition, we use a new 2-8 keV local sample selected by the very hard (14-195 keV) SWIFT 9-month Burst Alert Telescope survey to construct the local 2-8 keV HXLF. We do maximum likelihood fits of the combined distant plus local sample (as well as of the distant sample alone) over the redshift intervals 0 < z < 1.,0 < z < 3, and 0 < z < 5 using a variety of analytic forms, which we compare with the HXLFs. We recommend using our luminosity-dependent density evolution model fits of the combined distant plus local sample over 0 < z < 3 for all the spectroscopically identified sources and for the broad-line AGNs.