To understand the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) phenomenon and their impact on the evolution of galaxies, a complete AGN census is required; however, finding heavily obscured AGNs is observationally challenging. Here we use the deep and extensive multi-wavelength data in the COSMOS field to select a complete sample of 578 infrared (IR) quasars ($L_{\rm AGN,IR}>10^{45}\rm \: erg\: s^{-1}$) at z < 3, with minimal obscuration bias, using detailed UV-to-far-IR spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. We complement our SED constraints with X-ray and radio observations to further investigate the properties of the sample. Overall, 322 of the IR quasars are detected by Chandra and have individual X-ray spectral constraints. From a combination of X-ray stacking and $L_{\rm 2-10\rm keV}$ – $L_{\rm 6\: \mu m}$ analyses, we show that the majority of the X-ray faint and undetected quasars are heavily obscured (many are likely Compton thick), highlighting the effectiveness of the mid-IR band to find obscured AGNs. We find that 355 (≈ 61 per cent) IR quasars are obscured ($N_{\rm H}>10^{22}\rm \: cm^{-2}$) and identify differences in the average properties between the obscured and unobscured quasars: (1) obscured quasars have star-formation rates ≈3 times higher than unobscured systems for no significant difference in stellar mass and (2) obscured quasars have stronger radio emission than unobscured systems, with a radio-loudness parameter $\approx 0.2 \rm \: dex$ higher. These results are inconsistent with a simple orientation model but in general agreement with either extreme host-galaxy obscuration towards the obscured quasars or a scenario where obscured quasars are an early phase in the evolution of quasars.

A complete census of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is a prerequisite for understanding the growth of supermassive black holes across cosmic time. A significant challenge toward this goal is the whereabouts of heavily obscured AGN that remain uncertain. This paper sets new constraints on the demographics of this population by developing a methodology that combines X-ray spectral information with priors derived from multiwavelength observations. We select X-ray AGN in the Chandra COSMOS Legacy survey and fit their 2.2 − 500μm spectral energy distributions with galaxy and AGN templates to determine the mid-infrared (6μm) luminosity of the AGN component. Empirical correlations between X-ray and 6μm luminosities are then adopted to infer the intrinsic accretion luminosity at X-rays for individual AGN. This is used as prior information in our Bayesian X-ray spectral analysis to estimate physical properties, such as line-of-sight obscuration. Our approach breaks the degeneracies between accretion luminosity and obscuration that affect X-ray spectral analysis, particularly for the most heavily obscured (Compton-Thick) AGN with low photon counts X-ray spectra. The X-ray spectral results are then combined with the selection function of the Chandra COSMOS Legacy survey to derive the AGN space density and a Compton-Thick fraction of $21.0^{+16.1}_{-9.9}\%$ at redshifts z < 0.5. At higher redshift, our analysis suggests upper limits to the Compton-Thick AGN fraction of $\lesssim 40\%$. These estimates are at the low end of the range of values determined in the literature and underline the importance of multiwavelength approaches for tackling the challenge of heavily obscured AGN demographics.

We use simple models of the spatial structure of the quasar broad line region (BLR) to investigate the properties of so-called ghostly damped Lyman-α (DLA) systems detected in SDSS data. These absorbers are characterized by the presence of strong metal lines but no H i Lyman-α trough is seen in the quasar spectrum indicating that, although the region emitting the quasar continuum is covered by an absorbing cloud, the BLR is only partially covered. One of the models has a spherical geometry, another one is the combination of two wind flows whereas the third model is a Keplerian disk. The models can reproduce the typical shape of the quasar Lyman-α emission and different ghostly configurations. We show that the DLA H i column density can be recovered precisely independently of the BLR model used. The size of the absorbing cloud and its distance to the centre of the AGN are correlated. However it may be possible to disentangle the two using an independent estimate of the radius from the determination of the particle density. Comparison of the model outputs with SDSS data shows that the wind and disk models are more versatile than the spherical one and can be more easily adapted to the observations. For all the systems we derive log N(H i)(cm−2) > 20.5. With higher quality data it may be possible to distinguish between the models.