NuSTAR observations of heavily obscured quasars at z ~ 0.5

G. B. Lansbury, D. M. Alexander, A. Del Moro, P. Gandhi, R. J. Assef, D. Stern, J. Aird, D. R. Ballantyne, M. Balokovic´, F. E. Bauer, S. E. Boggs, W. N. Brandt, Finn Erland Christensen, W. W. Craig, M. Elvis, B. W. Grefenstette, C. J. Hailey, F. A. Harrison, R. C. Hickox, M. KossS. M. LaMassa, B. Luo, J. R. Mullaney, S. H. Teng, C. M. Urry, W. W. Zhang

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

    384 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    We present NuSTAR hard X-ray observations of three Type 2 quasars at z ≈ 0.4-0.5, optically selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Although the quasars show evidence for being heavily obscured, Compton-thick systems on the basis of the 2-10 keV to [O III] luminosity ratio and multiwavelength diagnostics, their X-ray absorbing column densities (NH) are poorly known. In this analysis, (1) we study X-ray emission at >10 keV, where X-rays from the central black hole are relatively unabsorbed, in order to better constrain NH. (2) We further characterize the physical properties of the sources through broad-band near-UV to mid-IR spectral energy distribution analyses. One of the quasars is detected with NuSTAR at >8 keV with a no-source probability of
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number17
    JournalAstrophysical Journal
    Volume785
    Issue number1
    Number of pages10
    ISSN0004-637X
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'NuSTAR observations of heavily obscured quasars at z ~ 0.5'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this