Spectrum of the unresolved cosmic X ray background: what is unresolved 50 years after its discovery

TL;DR

This study analyzes the unresolved cosmic X-ray background in the 1.5-7 keV range using Swift and Chandra data, revealing a hard spectral component and suggesting an evolving population of Compton-thick AGN over cosmic time.

Contribution

It provides the most accurate measurement to date of the unresolved CXRB spectrum and introduces a new constraint on the evolution of Compton-thick AGN populations.

Findings

Unresolved CXRB modeled by a hard power law with Gamma=0.1+/-0.7.

Measured flux of 5+/-3 x 10^-12 erg/cm^2/s in 2-10 keV band.

Results imply positive evolution of Compton-thick AGN from local to high redshift.

Abstract

We study the spectral properties of the unresolved cosmic X-ray background (CXRB) in the 1.5-7.0 keV energy band with the aim of providing an observational constraint on the statistical properties of those sources that are too faint to be individually probed. We made use of the Swift X-ray observation of the Chandra Deep Field South complemented by the Chandra data. Exploiting the lowest instrument background (Swift) together with the deepest observation ever performed (Chandra) we measured the unresolved emission at the deepest level and with the best accuracy available today. We find that the unresolved CXRB emission can be modeled by a single power law with a very hard photon index Gamma=0.1+/-0.7 and a flux of 5(+/-3)E-12 cgs in the 2.0-10 keV energy band (1 sigma error). Thanks to the low instrument background of the Swift-XRT, we significantly improved the accuracy with respect to previous measurements. These results point towards a novel ingredient in AGN population synthesis models, namely a positive evolution of the Compton-thick AGN population from local Universe to high redshift.