Water megamaser emission in hard X-ray selected AGN

TL;DR

This study investigates the occurrence of water megamaser emission in a hard X-ray selected AGN sample, revealing a higher detection rate in certain AGN types and suggesting geometrical factors influence maser activation.

Contribution

It provides the first unbiased assessment of water megamaser occurrence in hard X-ray selected AGN, linking detection rates to AGN properties and geometry.

Findings

Detection rate of 15% in the total sample.

Higher detection rate (~19%) in type 2 and Compton thick AGN.

Possible decline in detection with increasing luminosity.

Abstract

Water megamaser emission at 22 GHz has proven to be a powerful tool for astrophysical studies of AGN allowing an accurate determination of the central black hole mass and of the accretion disc geometry and dynamics. However, after searches among thousands of galaxies, only ~ 200 of them have shown such spectroscopic features, most of them of uncertain classification. In addition, the physical and geometrical conditions under which maser activates are still unknown. In this work we aim at characterizing the occurrence of water maser emission in an unbiased sample of AGN, investigating the relation with the X-ray properties and the possible favorable geometry needed to detect water maser. We have searched for 22 GHz maser emission in a hard X-ray selected sample of AGN, taken from the INTEGRAL/IBIS survey above 20 keV. Of the 380 sources in the sample, only half have water maser data. We have also considered a sub-sample of 87 sources, volume limited, for which we obtained new Green Bank Telescope and Effelsberg observations (for 35 sources), detecting one new maser and increasing its radio coverage to 75%. The detection rate of water maser emission in the total sample is 15+/-3%, this fraction raises up to 19+/-5% for the complete sub-sample, especially if considering type 2 and Compton thick AGN. These results demonstrate that the hard X-ray selection may significantly enhance the maser detection efficiency over comparably large optical/infrared surveys. A possible decline of the detection fraction with increasing luminosity might suggest that an extreme luminous nuclear environment does not favour maser emission. The large fraction of CT AGN with water maser emission could be explained in terms of geometrical effects, being the maser medium the very edge-on portion of the obscuring medium.