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We combine X-ray data from the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission 12th data release (4XMM DR12) and the extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array (eROSITA) Final Equatorial-Depth Survey (eFEDS) early data release catalogues with the Galaxy and Mass Assembly spectroscopic galaxy survey to form a sample of 526 local (⁠|$0.05\le z \le 0.3$|⁠), moderately luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs; |$L_{\rm X} \ge 10^{42}$| erg s-1). We compare the distribution of AGN hosts with that of the general galaxy population, finding no evidence of AGNs being preferentially hosted within over/underdense environments at a 7-Mpc scale. Next, we compare the distances to nearest-neighbour galaxies and find that AGN host galaxies are separated from their neighbours by the same distance as galaxies in a matched non-AGN sample. Finally, we consider mid-IR colour, provided by the All-WISE survey, the |$L_{\rm X}/L_{6\, \mu \mathrm{m}}$| ratio, and X-ray hardness as tracers of AGN obscuration, to explore whether there is a change in the galaxy environment for obscured AGNs. We find no evidence of increasing AGN obscuration with decreasing separation in close galaxy pairs. We conclude that close galaxy–galaxy interactions may not be sufficiently disruptive to cause any observable increase in AGN activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the Extragalactic Serendipitous Swift Survey (ExSeSS), providing a new well-defined sample constructed from the observations performed using the Swift X-ray Telescope. The ExSeSS sample consists of 79 342 sources detected in the medium (1–2 keV), hard (2–10 keV), or total (0.3–10 keV) energy bands, covering 2086.6 deg2 of sky across a flux range of f 0.3–10 keV ∼ 10−15 − 10−10 erg s−1 cm−2. Using the new ExSeSS sample we present measurements of the differential number counts of X-ray sources as a function of 2–10 keV flux that trace the population of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) in a previously unexplored regime. We find that taking the line-of-sight absorption column density into account has an effect on the differential number count measurements and is vital to obtain agreement with previous results. In the hard band, we obtain a good agreement between the ExSeSS measurements and previous, higher energy data from NuSTAR and Swift /BAT when taking into account the varying column density of the ExSeSS sample as well as the X-ray spectral parameters of each of the samples we are comparing to. We also find discrepancies between the ExSeSS measurements and AGN population synthesis models, indicating a change in the properties of the AGN population over this flux range that is not fully described by current models at these energies, hinting at a larger, moderately obscured population at low redshifts (z ≲ 0.2) that the models are not currently taking into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]