The high-redshift (z>3) AGN population in the 4 Ms Chandra Deep Field South

TL;DR

This study analyzes high-redshift (z>3) X-ray selected AGN in the deepest Chandra survey, revealing a high obscured fraction and supporting models of declining AGN density at early cosmic times.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed spectral analysis of a substantial high-redshift AGN sample in the 4 Ms CDF-S, including intrinsic absorption distribution and source counts.

Findings

Approximately 57% of sources are highly obscured (N_H>10^{23} cm^{-2}.

Results support a decline in AGN space density at z>3.

Obscured fraction aligns with XRB synthesis model predictions.

Abstract

We present results from a spectral analysis of a sample of high-redshift (z>3) X-ray selected AGN in the 4 Ms Chandra Deep Field South (CDF-S), the deepest X-ray survey to date. The sample is selected using the most recent spectroscopic and photometric information available in this field. It consists of 34 sources with median redshift z=3.7, 80 median net counts in the 0.5-7 keV band and median rest-frame absorption-corrected luminosity $L_{2-10 \rmn{keV}}\approx1.5\times10^{44}\rmn{erg} \rmn{s^{-1}}$. Spectral analysis for the full sample is presented and the intrinsic column density distribution, corrected for observational biases using spectral simulations, is compared with the expectations of X-ray background (XRB) synthesis models. We find that $\approx57$ per cent of the sources are highly obscured ($N_H>10^{23}\rmn{cm^{-2}}$). Source number counts in the $0.5-2\rmn{keV}$ band down to flux $F_{0.5-2 \rmn{keV}}\approx4\times10^{-17}\rmn{erg} \rmn{s^{-1}cm^{-2}}$ are also presented. Our results are consistent with a decline of the AGN space density at z>3 and suggest that, at those redshifts, the AGN obscured fraction is in agreement with the expectations of XRB synthesis models.