Piecing Together the X-ray Background: Bolometric Corrections for Active Galactic Nuclei

TL;DR

This study refines the understanding of bolometric corrections in AGN by accounting for UV disk emission variations, revealing a relationship with Eddington ratio and implications for SMBH growth models.

Contribution

It introduces a new method to estimate bolometric corrections by including UV disk emission, showing their dependence on Eddington ratio rather than luminosity alone.

Findings

Bolometric correction varies with Eddington ratio, not luminosity.

NLS1s, Radio Loud, and X-ray Weak AGN have systematically different corrections.

A potential analogy exists between AGN states and Galactic Black Hole states.

Abstract

(Abridged) The X-ray background can be used to constrain the accretion history of Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). A knowledge of the hard X-ray bolometric correction, \kappa_{2-10keV} is a vital input into these studies. Variations in the disk emission in the UV have not previously been taken into account in calculating \kappa_{2-10keV}; we show that such variations are important by constructing optical--to--X-ray SEDs for 54 AGN. In particular, we use FUSE UV and X-ray data from the literature to constrain the disk emission as well as possible. Previous work has suggested a dependence of \kappa_{2-10keV} on AGN luminosity, but we find significant spread in \kappa_{2-10keV} with no simple dependence on luminosity. Populations such as Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 nuclei (NLS1s), Radio Loud and X-ray Weak AGN may have values of \kappa_{2-10keV} differing systematically from the rest of the AGN population. Other sources of uncertainty include intrinsic extinction in the optical--UV, X-ray and UV variability and uncertainties in SMBH mass estimates. Our results suggest a more well-defined relationship between \kappa_{2-10keV} and Eddington ratio in AGN, with a transitional region at an Eddington ratio of ~0.1, below which the bolometric correction is typically 15 - 25, and above which it is typically 40 - 70. We consider the potential implied parallels with the low/hard and high/soft states in Galactic Black Hole (GBH) accretion, and present bolometric corrections for the GBH binary GX 339-4 for comparison. Our findings reinforce previous studies proposing a multi-state description of AGN accretion analogous to that for GBH binaries. Future calculations of the SMBH mass density may need to account for the possible dependence of \kappa_{2-10keV} on Eddington ratio.