Type 1 Active Galactic Nucleus Fraction in SDSS/FIRST Survey

TL;DR

This study investigates the fraction of type 1 AGN in a low-redshift radio-selected sample, revealing its dependence on black hole mass and radio power, and providing insights into the obscuration mechanisms and host galaxy influence.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive analysis of type 1 AGN fraction dependence on nuclear and host galaxy properties in a radio-selected sample, correcting for selection effects.

Findings

Type 1 fraction is ~20% across a wide luminosity range.

Fraction increases with black hole mass, suggesting galaxy-scale obscuration effects.

Fraction rises with radio power up to a certain point, then stabilizes.

Abstract

In the unification scheme, narrow-lined (type 2) active galactic nuclei (AGN) are intrinsically similar to broad-lined (type 1) AGN with the exception that the line of sight to the broad emission line region and accretion disk is blocked by a dusty torus. The fraction of type 1 AGN measures the average covering factor of the torus. In this paper, we explore the dependence of this fraction on nuclear properties for a sample of low redshift (z <0.35) radio strong (P_{1.4GHz} >10^{23}W/Hz) AGN selected by matching the spectroscopic catalog of Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the radio source catalog of Faint Image of Radio Sky at Twenty cm. After correcting for several selection effects, we find that : (1) type 1 fraction $f_1$ keeps at a constant of ~20 per cent in the [O III] 5007 luminosity range of 40.7< log(L_{[O III]}/ erg/s) <43.5 . This result is significantly different from previous studies, and the difference can be explained by extinction correction and different treatment of selection effects. (2) $f_1$ rises with black hole mass from ~20 per cent (M_bh below 10^8 Msun) to ~30 per cent (M_bh above that). This coincides with the decrease of the fraction of highly-inclined disk galaxies with black hole mass, implying a population of Seyfert galaxies seen as type 2 due to galaxy-scale obscuration in disk when the host galaxy type transfer from bulge-dominant to disk-dominant. (3) $f_1$ is independent of the Eddington ratio for its value between 0.01 and 1; (4) $f_1$ ascends from 15 per cent to 30 per cent in the radio power range of 23< log(P_{1.4GHz}/ W/Hz) <24, then remain a constant at ~30 per cent up to 10^{26} W/Hz.