Luminosity function evolution of soft X-ray-selected active galactic nuclei in the RIXOS survey

A sample of 198 soft X-ray-selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) from the ROSAT International X-ray Optical Survey (RIXOS) is used to investigate the X-ray luminosity function and its evolution. RIXOS, with a flux limit of 3 × 10-14 erg s-1 cm-2 (0.5 to 2.0 keV), samples a broad range in redshift ov...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Page, Matt, Carrera, Francisco J., Hasinger, Günther, Mason, Keith O., McMahon, Richard G., Mittaz, J. P. D., Barcons, Xavier, Carballo, R., González-Serrano, José Ignacio, Pèrez-Fournon, Ismael
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:1996
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/170131
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/170131
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Galaxies: active
Surveys
Galaxies: luminosity function
Mass function
Cosmology: observations
X-ray galaxies
Descripción
Sumario:A sample of 198 soft X-ray-selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) from the ROSAT International X-ray Optical Survey (RIXOS) is used to investigate the X-ray luminosity function and its evolution. RIXOS, with a flux limit of 3 × 10-14 erg s-1 cm-2 (0.5 to 2.0 keV), samples a broad range in redshift over 20 deg2 of sky, and is almost completely identified; it is used in combination wtih the Einstein Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey (EMSS) to give a total sample of over 600 AGN. We find the evolution of AGN with redshift to be consistent with pure luminosity evolution (PLE) models in which the evolution slows markedly or stops at high redshifts (z > 1.8). We find that this result is not affected by the inclusion, or exclusion, of narrow-emission-line galaxies at low redshift in the RIXOS and EMSS samples, and is insensitive to uncertainties in the conversion between flux values measured with ROSAT and Einstein. We confirm, using a model-independent ≺e/Va≻ test, that our survey is consistent with no evolution at high redshifts.