What's wrong with AGN models for the X-ray background ?

The origin of the hard X-ray background (XRB) as a superposition of unabsorbed and absorbed Active Galactic Nuclei is now widely accepted as the standard model. The identification of faint X-ray sources in ROSAT, ASCA, and BeppoSAX medium-deep surveys and their average spectral properties are in broad agreement with the model predictions. However, AGN models, at least in their simplified version, seem to be at odds with some of the most recent findings calling for substantial revisions. I will review the recent XRB "best fit" models and discuss how the foreseen XMM and Chandra surveys will be able to constrain the allowed parameter space.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Invited talk to appear in the Proceedings of the Conference X-ray Astronomy '999: Stellar Endpoints, AGNs and the Diffuse X-ray Background. (September 6-10 - 1999

The Missing X-ray Background

The fraction of the hard X-ray background (XRB) resolved into individual sources by the deep Chandra and XMM-Newton surveys strongly depends on the adopted energy range and decreases with increasing energy. As a consequence, the nature of the sources of the even harder (>10 keV) XRB remains observationally poorly constrained. I will briefly discuss the need for X-ray observations above 10 keV.Comment: to appear in the proceedings of 'Multiwavelength AGN surveys' (Cozumel, December 8-12 2003), ed. R. Maiolino and R. Mujic

The BeppoSAX view of NLS1s

The main results of broad-band (0.1-10 keV) BeppoSAX observations of a selected sample of NLS1s are presented and discussed. It is shown that all the available data are consistent with a scenario in which NLS1s are running at a high accretion rate.Comment: Invited talk presented at the Joint MPE,AIP,ESO workshop on NLS1s, Bad Honnef, Dec. 1999, to appear in New Astronomy Reviews; also available at http://wave.xray.mpe.mpg.de/conferences/nls1-worksho

ASCA spectroscopy of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC6240: X-ray emission from a starburst and a buried active nucleus

We present an X-ray spectral study of the prototype far-infrared galaxy NGC6240 from ASCA. The soft X-ray spectrum (below 2 keV) shows clear signatures of thermal emission well described with a multi-temperature optically-thin plasma, which probably originates in a powerful starburst. Strong hard X-ray emission is also detected with ASCA and its spectrum above 3 keV is extremely flat with a prominent iron K line complex, very similar to that seen in the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC1068 but about an order of magnitude more luminous [L(3-10keV)=1.4E42 erg/s]. The hard X-ray spectrum indicates that only reflected X-rays of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) buried in a heavy obscuration [N(H)>2E24 cm-2] are visible. This is evidence for an AGN in NGC6240 emitting possibly at a quasar luminosity and suggests its significant contribution to the far-infrared luminosity.Comment: 9 pages, 6 Postscript figures, to appear in MNRA

On the low detection efficiency of disk water megamasers in Seyfert 2 AGN

Disk megamasers are a unique tool to study active galactic nuclei (AGN) sub-pc environment, and precisely measure some of their fundamental parameters. While the majority of disk megamasers are hosted in heavily obscured (i.e., Seyfert 2, Sy2) AGN, the converse is not true, and disk megamasers are very rarely found even in obscured AGN. The very low detection rate of such systems in Sy2 AGN could be due to the geometry of the maser beaming, which requires a strict edge-on condition. We explore some other fundamental factors which could play a role in a volume-limited survey of disk megamasers in Sy2 galaxies, most importantly the radio luminosity.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 336, 2017 "Astrophysical Masers: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe

The Iron Line Background

We investigate the presence of iron line emission among faint X-ray sources identified in the 1Ms Chandra Deep Field South and in the 2Ms Chandra Deep Field North. Individual source spectra are stacked in seven redshift bins over the range z=0.5-4. We find that iron line emission is an ubiquitous property of X-ray sources up to z~3. The measured line strengths are in good agreement with those expected by simple pre-Chandra estimates based on X-ray background synthesis models. The average rest frame equivalent width of the iron line does not show significant changes with redshift.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, ApJ Letters in press (include emulateapj.sty

ROSAT observations of radio-selected BL Lac objects

ROSAT observations of a homogeneous sample of radio--selected BL Lac objects are presented. Results of a detailed spectral analysis in the soft 0.1-2.0 keV energy range are discussed and compared with similar previously published results. The X--ray spectral shape is discussed in relation to the overall energy distribution with particular emphasys on the high energy gamma--ray emission recently detected by CGRO--EGRET for about half of the objects in the sample. Dividing the objects in our sample on the basis of the radio to X--ray flux ratio (alpha_rx) we show that objects with alpha_rx > 0.75 have flatter X--ray spectra and are likely to be stronger gamma--ray emitters than objects with alpha_rx < 0.75. Moreover we note that the value of the peak energy of the synchrotron component, in a E * F(E) plot, correlates with alpha_rx and alpha_x.Comment: to appear on MNRAS, 18 pages (latex file plus 5 tables and 3 figures) uuencoded compressed tar postscript file