No abstract

We present ASCA spatial, temporal, and spectral data for a sample of 26 observations of 25 type 2 active galactic nuclei (AGNs), composed of 17 Seyfert 2 galaxies and eight narrow emission line galaxies (NELGs). Twenty-four of the 25 sources were detected.The ASCA images are generally consistent with emission from point sources at energies above D3 keV. We use archival ROSAT data to examine each Ðeld at high spatial resolution and to check for the presence of sources that would contaminate the ASCA data.Of the Ðve sources bright enough for 128 s temporal analysis, three are variable at [99% conÐdence, with characteristics consistent with those observed in Seyfert 1 galaxies. Analysis on a timescale of 5760 s reveals six sources variable at [99% conÐdence, and comparison with previous X-ray results shows most of the sample to be variable in hard X-ray Ñux on timescales of years.Simple continuum models are Ðtted to the sample spectra to characterize the variety of spectral forms and hence to determine the fundamental nature of the X-ray spectrum of each source. No single spectral model provides an adequate Ðt to all the sample sources. Thirty-six percent of the sample cannot be adequately Ðtted by any of our test models (all rejected at [95% conÐdence). Approximately half of the sample have an iron Ka line with an equivalent width consistent with an origin in the line-of-sight absorber ; the remaining lines must be produced in material out of the line of sight. Absorbing columns up to 1024 atoms cm~2 are detected, and even larger columns are inferred for some sources. The mean underlying hard X-ray power-law index is ! D 2.Many X-ray emission lines were detected at high levels of conÐdence. The iron K-shell regime is dominated by emission from "" neutral ÏÏ material. Many data sets also show evidence for complexity in the iron Ka proÐle, which may be interpreted as evidence for broad-line proÐles, including Ñux both redward and blueward of the line peak, and/or for the existence of hydrogen-like and helium-like iron K lines.Hydrogen-like and helium-like lines are detected from Fe, Ne, Si, S, and Ar in addition to Mg lines. While almost half of the sample have an estimated starburst contribution of [30% in the 0.5È4.5 keV bandpass, the soft X-ray emission lines are not solely associated with a strong starburst component.

We present the active galactic nucleus (AGN) catalog and optical spectroscopy for the second data release of the Swift BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS DR2). With this DR2 release we provide 1449 optical spectra, of which 1182 are released for the first time, for the 858 hard-X-ray-selected AGNs in the Swift BAT 70-month sample. The majority of the spectra (801/1449, 55%) are newly obtained from Very Large Telescope (VLT)/X-shooter or Palomar/Doublespec. Many of the spectra have both higher resolution (R > 2500, N ∼ 450) and/or very wide wavelength coverage (3200–10000 Å, N ∼ 600) that are important for a variety of AGN and host galaxy studies. We include newly revised AGN counterparts for the full sample and review important issues for population studies, with 47 AGN redshifts determined for the first time and 790 black hole mass and accretion rate estimates. This release is spectroscopically complete for all AGNs (100%, 858/858), with 99.8% having redshift measurements (857/858) and 96% completion in black hole mass estimates of unbeamed AGNs (722/752). This AGN sample represents a unique census of the brightest hard-X-ray-selected AGNs in the sky, spanning many orders of magnitude in Eddington ratio (L/L Edd = 10−5–100), black hole mass (M BH = 105–1010 M ⊙), and AGN bolometric luminosity (L bol = 1040–1047 erg s−1 ).

We provide a comprehensive census of the near-Infrared (NIR, 0.8-2.4 µm) spectroscopic properties of 102 nearby (z < 0.075) active galactic nuclei (AGN), selected in the hard X-ray band (14-195 keV) from the Swift-Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) survey. With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope this regime is of increasing importance for dusty and obscured AGN surveys. We measure black hole masses in 68% (69/102) of the sample using broad emission lines (34/102) and/or the velocity dispersion of the Ca II triplet or the CO band-heads (46/102). We find that emission line diagnostics in the NIR are ineffective at identifying bright, nearby AGN galaxies because ([Fe ii] 1.257µm/Paβ and H 2 2.12µm/Brγ) identify only 25% (25/102) as AGN with significant overlap with star forming galaxies and only 20% of Seyfert 2 have detected coronal lines (6/30). We measure the coronal line emission in Seyfert 2 to be weaker than in Seyfert 1 of the same bolometric luminosity suggesting obscuration by the nuclear torus. We find that the correlation between the hard X-ray and the [Si vi] coronal line luminosity is significantly better than with the [O iii] λ 5007 luminosity. Finally, we find 3/29 galaxies (10%) that are optically classified as Seyfert 2 show broad emission lines in the NIR. These AGN have the lowest levels of obscuration among the Seyfert 2s in our sample (log N H < 22.43 cm −2 ), and all show signs of galaxy-scale interactions or mergers suggesting that the optical broad emission lines are obscured by host galaxy dust.