The INTEGRAL Complete Sample of Type 1 AGN

TL;DR

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the broad-band X-ray spectral properties of a complete sample of 36 Type 1 AGN detected by INTEGRAL, revealing average spectral parameters and their implications for AGN models.

Contribution

It offers the first complete broad-band spectral analysis of a well-defined INTEGRAL-selected Type 1 AGN sample, including average properties and parameter distributions.

Findings

Average photon index of 1.7 with 0.2 dispersion

Mean high-energy cut-off around 100 keV, mostly 50-150 keV

Average reflection fraction of 1.5 with 0.7 dispersion

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the broad-band X-ray characteristics of a complete sample of 36 type 1 AGN, detected by INTEGRAL in the 20-40 keV band above the 5.5sigma level. We present, for all the objects in the sample, the broad-band (1-110 keV) spectral analysis obtained by using INTEGRAL/Swift-BAT observations together with XMM-Newton, Chandra, ASCA and Swift/XRT data. We also present the general average properties of the sample, i.e. the distribution of photon indices, high energy cut-offs, reflection fractions and absorption properties, together with an in-depth analysis of their parameter space. We find that the average Seyfert 1 power law has an index of 1.7 with a dispersion of 0.2. The mean cut-off energy is at around 100 keV, with most objects displaying Ec in the range 50-150 keV; the average amount of Compton reflection is 1.5 with a typical dispersion of 0.7. We do not find any convincing correlation between the various parameters, an indication that our analysis is not strongly dependent by the interplay between them. Finally, we investigate how the results presented in this work fit into current frameworks for AGN spectral modeling and Cosmic Diffuse X-ray Background synthesis models.