X-ray selected narrow-line active galactic nuclei in the COSMOS field: Nature of optically dull active galactic nuclei

Abstract

Abstract X-ray emission detection in a galaxy is one of the efficient tools for selecting active galactic nuclei (AGNs). However, many X-ray-selected AGNs are not easily selected as AGNs by their optical emission. These galaxies, so-called optically dull (OD) AGNs, are fascinating since their X-ray emission is bright even though the AGN signature in the optical regime is absent. In a deep multiwavelength survey over 2 deg2 of the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) field, we have looked for the OD AGNs using photometric, spectroscopic, and X-ray data. We identified 310 non-broad line sources with optical spectra as AGNs using X-ray selection up to redshift z ∼ 1.5. We inspected the spectra to check for any AGN signature in their optical emission lines: [Ne v] forbidden emission line, Mass Excitation diagram (MEx), color excitation diagram (TBT), and excess in [O ii] emission line. Finally, we found 48 AGNs that show AGN signatures in the optical spectrum, classified as narrow-line AGN, and 180 AGNs that did not show any AGN signature as the OD AGN sample. Simple explanations of the nature of OD AGNe are a bright host galaxy that dilutes the AGN light or dust materials obscuring the AGN light. We found that the bright host galaxy dilution explains nearly $70\%$ of our OD AGN sample. At the same time, the dust material obscuration is unlikely to be the main reason. By estimating the Eddington ratio, we also found that 95 out of 180 of our OD AGNs have a lower accretion rate, (λEdd) ≲ 10−2, than the typical AGN value. We expected the lower accretion rate sources that suffer from neither host galaxy dilution nor obscuration to have radiatively inefficient flow (RIAF) in their accretion disk. Finally, nine sources have been identified to be most likely hosts of the RIAF disk.