X-ray Selected Narrow-Line Active Galactic Nuclei in the COSMOS Field: Nature of Optically Dull Active Galactic Nuclei

TL;DR

This study investigates optically dull X-ray selected AGNs in the COSMOS field, revealing that most are due to host galaxy dilution or low accretion rates, with some hosting radiatively inefficient accretion flows.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the nature of optically dull AGNs, identifying the causes of their optical faintness and characterizing their accretion states.

Findings

70% of OD AGNs are due to host galaxy dilution.

95 out of 180 OD AGNs have low Eddington ratios (<10^{-2}).

Nine sources likely host radiatively inefficient accretion flows.

Abstract

X-ray emission detection in a galaxy is one of the efficient tools for selecting Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). However, many X-ray-selected AGNs are not easily selected as AGNs by their optical emission. These galaxies, so-called optically dull (OD) AGNs, are fascinating since their X-ray emission is bright even though the AGN signature in the optical regime is absent. In a deep multiwavelength survey over 2 deg$^2$ of the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) field, we have looked for the OD AGNs using photometric, spectroscopic, and X-ray data. We identified 310 non-broad line sources with optical spectra as AGN using X-ray selection up to redshift $z\sim 1.5$. We inspected the spectra to check for any AGN signature in their optical emission lines: [Ne V] forbidden emission line, Mass Excitation diagram (MEx), color excitation diagram (TBT), and excess in [O II ] emission line. Finally, we found 48 AGNs show AGN signatures in the optical spectrum classified as narrow-line AGN and 180 AGNs that did not show any AGN signature as OD AGN sample. The simple explanation of OD AGN's nature is due to a bright host galaxy that dilutes the AGN light or dust materials obscuring the AGN light. The bright host galaxy dilution explains nearly $70\%$ of our OD AGN sample. At the same time, the dust material obscuration is unlikely for the main reason. By estimating the Eddington ratio, we also found that 95/180 of our OD AGNs have a lower accretion rate of $(\lambda_\text{Edd})\lesssim 10^{-2}$ than the typical AGN value. We expected the lower accretion rate sources that suffer from neither host galaxy dilution nor obscuration to have Radiatively Inefficient Flow (RIAF) in their accretion disk. Finally, nine sources have been identified to be most likely host the RIAF disk.