We present the analysis of simultaneous Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and XMM-Newton data of eight Compton-thick active galactic nuclei (CT-AGN) candidates selected in the Swift-BAT 100 month catalog. This work is part of an ongoing effort to find and characterize all CT-AGN in the Local (z ≤ 0.05) Universe. We used two physically motivated models, MYTorus and borus02, to characterize the sources in the sample, finding five of them to be confirmed CT-AGN. These results represent an increase of ∼19% over the previous NuSTAR-confirmed, BAT-selected CT-AGN at z ≤ 0.05, bringing the total number to 32. This corresponds to an observed fraction of ∼8% of all AGN within this volume-limited sample, although it increases to 20% ± 5% when limiting the sample to z ≤ 0.01. Out of a sample of 48 CT-AGN candidates, selected using BAT and soft (0.3−10 keV) X-ray data, only 24 are confirmed as CT-AGN with the addition of the NuSTAR data. This highlights the importance of NuSTAR when classifying local obscured AGN. We also note that most of the sources in our full sample of 48 Seyfert 2 galaxies with NuSTAR data have significantly different lines of sight and average torus column densities, favoring a patchy torus scenario.

The obscuration observed in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is mainly caused by dust and gas distributed in a torus-like structure surrounding the supermassive black hole. However, the properties of the obscuring torus of an AGN in X-ray have not yet been fully investigated because of a lack of high-quality data and proper models. In this work, we perform a broadband X-ray spectral analysis of a large, unbiased sample of obscured AGNs (with line-of-sight column density 23 ≤ log(NH) ≤ 24) in the nearby Universe for which high-quality archival NuSTAR data are available. We analyzed the source spectra using the recently developed borus02 model, which enables us to accurately characterize the physical and geometrical properties of AGN-obscuring tori. We compare our results obtained from the unbiased Compton-thin AGNs with those of Compton-thick AGNs. We find that Compton-thin and Compton-thick AGNs may possess similar tori, whose average column density is Compton thick (NH, tor, ave ≈ 1.4 × 1024 cm−2), but they are observed through different (under-dense or over-dense) regions of the tori. We also find that the obscuring torus medium is significantly inhomogeneous, with the torus average column densities being significantly different from their line-of-sight column densities (for most of the sources in the sample). The average torus covering factor of sources in our unbiased sample is cf = 0.67, suggesting that the fraction of unobscured AGNs is ∼33%. We developed a new method to measure the intrinsic line-of-sight column density distribution of AGNs in the nearby Universe, and find the results to be in good agreement with constraints from recent population synthesis models.

The Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) 3FHL catalog is the latest catalog of >10 GeV sources and will remain an important resource for the high-energy community for the foreseeable future. Therefore, it is crucial that this catalog is made complete by providing associations for most sources. In this paper, we present the results of the X-ray analysis of 38 3FHL sources. We found a single bright X-ray source in 20 fields, two sources each in two fields, and none for the remaining 16. The analysis of the properties of the 22 3FHL fields with X-ray sources led us to believe that most (∼19/22) are of extragalactic origin. A machine-learning algorithm was used to determine the source type and we find that 15 potential blazars are likely BL Lacertae objects (BL Lac objects). This is consistent with the fact that BL Lac objects are by far the most numerous population detected above >10 GeV in the 3FHL.

We present the joint Chandra, XMM-Newton, and NuSTAR analysis of two nearby Seyfert galaxies, NGC 3081 and ESO 565-G019. These are the only two having Chandra data in a larger sample of 10 low-redshift (z ≤ 0.05), candidates Compton-thick (CT) Active Galactic Nuclei selected in the 15–150 keV band with Swift-BAT that were still lacking NuSTAR data. Our spectral analysis, performed using physically motivated models, provides an estimate of both the line-of-sight (l.o.s.) and average (N H,S ) column densities of the two torii. NGC 3081 has a Compton-thin l.o.s. column density N H,z = [0.58–0.62] × 1024 cm−2, but the N H,S , beyond the CT threshold (N H,S = [1.41–1.78] × 1024 cm−2), suggests a “patchy” scenario for the distribution of the circumnuclear matter. ESO 565-G019 has both CT l.o.s. and N H,S column densities (N H,z > 2.31 × 1024 cm−2 and N H,S > 2.57 × 1024 cm−2, respectively). The use of physically motivated models, coupled with the broad energy range covered by the data (0.6–70 keV and 0.6–40 keV, for NGC 3081 and ESO 565-G019, respectively) allows us to constrain the covering factor of the obscuring material, which is C TOR = [0.63–0.82] for NGC 3081, and C TOR = [0.39–0.65] for ESO 565-G019.

As a follow-up to the optical spectroscopic campaign aimed at achieving completeness in the Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources (3FHL), we present here the results of a sample of 28 blazars of an uncertain type observed using the 4 m telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Out of these 28 sources, we find that 25 are BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs) and 3 are flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs). We measure redshifts or lower limits for 16 of these blazars, and it is observed that the 12 remaining blazars have featureless optical spectra. These results are part of a more extended optical spectroscopy follow-up campaign for 3FHL blazars, where, until now, 51 blazars of an uncertain type have been classified into BL Lac and FSRQ categories. Furthermore, this campaign has resulted in redshift measurements and lower limits for 15 of these sources. Our results contribute toward attaining a complete sample of blazars above 10 GeV, which then will be crucial in extending our knowledge on blazar emission mechanisms and the extragalactic background light.