DOE OSTI2012
We estimate the relative contributions of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) accretion disk, corona, and obscuring torus to the bolometric luminosity of Seyfert galaxies, using Spitzer mid-infrared (MIR) observations of a complete sample of 68 nearby active galactic nuclei (AGNs) from the INTEGRAL all-sky hard X-ray (HX) survey. This is the first HX-selected (above 15 keV) sample of AGNs with complementary high angular resolution, high signal-to-noise, MIR data. Correcting for the host galaxy contribution, we find a correlation between HX and MIR luminosities: L{sub 15{mu}m}{proportional_to}L{sup 0.74{+-}0.06}{sub HX}. Assuming that the observed MIR emission is radiation from an accretion disk reprocessed in a surrounding dusty torus that subtends a solid angle decreasing with increasing luminosity (as inferred from the declining fraction of obscured AGNs), the intrinsic disk luminosity, L{sub Disk}, is approximately proportional to the luminosity of the corona in the 2-300 keV energy band, L{sub Corona}, with the L{sub Disk}/L{sub Corona} ratio varying by a factor of 2.1 around a mean value of 1.6. This ratio is a factor of {approx}2 smaller than for typical quasars producing the cosmic X-ray background. Therefore, over three orders of magnitude in luminosity, HX radiation carries a large, and roughly comparable, fraction of the bolometric output of AGNs. We estimate the cumulative bolometric luminosity density of local AGNs at {approx}(1-3) Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 40} erg s{sup -1} Mpc{sup -3}. Finally, the Compton temperature ranges between kT{sub c} Almost-Equal-To 2 and Almost-Equal-To 6 keV for nearby AGNs, compared to kT{sub c} Almost-Equal-To 2 keV for typical quasars, confirming that radiative heating of interstellar gas can play an important role in regulating SMBH growth.
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗