Fe K emission from active galaxies in the COSMOS field

TL;DR

This study uses spectral stacking of X-ray sources in the COSMOS field to analyze iron K emission in active galaxies beyond redshift 1, revealing different behaviors of Fe lines related to galaxy type, luminosity, and redshift.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the properties of Fe K emission in AGN at high redshift, especially the prominence of high-ionization lines in certain populations and their connection to accretion rates.

Findings

Weak cold Fe K at 6.4 keV in Type I AGN at z~1.6

Pronounced high-ionization Fe XXV and Fe XXVI lines at high redshift

Strong high-ionization Fe K emission in z>2 sources detected with MIPS

Abstract

We present a rest-frame spectral stacking analysis of ~1000 X-ray sources detected in the XMM-COSMOS field in order to investigate the iron K line properties of active galaxies beyond redshift z~1. In Type I AGN that have a typical X-ray luminosity of Lx~1.5e44 erg/s and z~1.6, the cold Fe K at 6.4 keV is weak (EW~0.05keV), in agreement with the known trend. In contrast, high-ionization lines of Fe XXV and Fe XXVI are pronounced. These high-ionization Fe K lines appear to have a connection with high accretion rates. While no broad Fe emission is detected in the total spectrum, it might be present, albeit at low significance, when the X-ray luminosity is restricted to the range below 3e44 erg/s, or when an intermediate range of Eddington ratio around 0.1 is selected. In Type II AGN, both cold and high-ionzation lines become weak with increasing X-ray luminosity. However, strong high-ionization Fe K (EW~0.3 keV) is detected in the spectrum of objects at z>2, while no 6.4 keV line is found. It is then found that the primary source of the high-ionization Fe K emission is those objects detected with Spitzer-MIPS at 24 micron. Given their median redshift of z=2.5, their bolometric luminosity is likely to reach 10^13 Lsun and the MIPS-detected emission most likely originates from hot dust heated by embedded AGN, probably accreting at high Eddington ratio. These properties match those of rapidly growing black holes in ultra-luminous infrared galaxies at the interesting epoch (z=2-3) of galaxy formation.