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A sample of X-ray and optically selected narrow emission-line galaxies (769 sources) from the 3XMM catalogue cross-correlated with SDSS (DR9) catalogue has been studied. Narrow-emission line active galactic nuclei (AGN; type-2) have been selected on the basis of their emission line ratios and/or X-ray luminosity. We have looked for X-ray unobscured type-2 AGN. As X-ray spectra were not available for our whole sample, we have checked the reliability of using the X-ray hardness ratio (HR) as a probe of the level of obscuration and we found a very good agreement with full spectral fitting results, with only 2% of the sources with apparently unobscured HR turning out to have an obscured spectrum. Despite the fact that type-2 AGN are supposed to be absorbed based on the Unified Model, about 60% of them show no sign or very low level of X-ray obscuration. After subtraction of contaminants to the sample, that is Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 and Compton-thick AGN, the fraction of unobscured Sy2 drops to 47%. For these sources, we were able to rule out dust reddening and variability for most of them as an explanation of the absence of optical broad emission-lines. The main explanations remaining are the dilution of weak/very broad emission-lines by the host galaxy and the intrinsic absence of the broad-line region (BLR) due to low accretion rates (i.e. True Sy2). However, the number of True Sy2 strongly depends on the method used to verify the intrinsic lack of broad lines. Indeed using the optical continuum luminosity to predict the BLR properties gives a much larger fraction of True Sy2 (about 90\% of the unobscured Sy2 sample) than the use of the X-ray 2 keV luminosity (about 20%). Nevertheless the number of AGN we securely detected as True Sy2 is at least three times larger that the previously confirmed number of True Sy2., Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

We report the multi-wavelength identification of the X-ray sources found in the Subaru-XMM-Newton Deep Survey (SXDS) using deep imaging data covering the wavelength range between the far-UV to the mid-IR. We select a primary counterpart of each X-ray source by applying the likelihood ratio method to R-band, 3.6micron, near-UV, and 24micron source catalogs as well as matching catalogs of AGN candidates selected in 1.4GHz radio and i'-band variability surveys. Once candidates of Galactic stars, ultra-luminous X-ray sources in a nearby galaxy, and clusters of galaxies are removed there are 896 AGN candidates in the sample. We conduct spectroscopic observations of the primary counterparts with multi-object spectrographs in the optical and NIR; 65\% of the X-ray AGN candidates are spectroscopically-identified. For the remaining X-ray AGN candidates, we evaluate their photometric redshift with photometric data in 15 bands. Utilising the multi-wavelength photometric data of the large sample of X-ray selected AGNs, we evaluate the stellar masses, M*, of the host galaxies of the narrow-line AGNs. The distribution of the stellar mass is remarkably constant from z=0.1 to 4.0. The relation between M* and 2--10 keV luminosity can be explained with strong cosmological evolution of the relationship between the black hole mass and M*. We also evaluate the scatter of the UV-MIR spectral energy distribution (SED) of the X-ray AGNs as a function of X-ray luminosity and absorption to the nucleus. The scatter is compared with galaxies which have redshift and stellar mass distribution matched with the X-ray AGN. The UV-NIR SEDs of obscured X-ray AGNs are similar to those of the galaxies in the matched sample. In the NIR-MIR range, the median SEDs of X-ray AGNs are redder, but the scatter of the SEDs of the X-ray AGN broadly overlaps that of the galaxies in the matched sample., Comment: Accepted for publication in PASJ Subaru special issue. 42 pages, 22 figures. Entire contents of Tables 3, 8, 9, 10, and 11, and ASCII format tables are available from http://www.astr.tohoku.ac.jp/~akiyama/SXDS/index.html

Using the 3XMM catalogue of serendipitous X-ray sources, and the SDSS-DR9 spectroscopic catalogue, we have obtained a new sample of X-ray selected narrow emission line galaxies. The standard optical diagnostic diagram and selection by hard X-ray luminosity expose a mismatch between the optically-based and X-ray-based classifications. The nature of these misclassified elusive AGN can be understood in terms of their broader X-ray and optical properties and leads to a division of this sub-sample into two groups. A little more than half are likely to be narrow-line Seyfert 1s (NLS1s), so misclassified because of the contribution of the Broad Line Region (BLR) to their optical spectra. The remainder have some of the properties of Seyfert 2 (Sy2) AGN; their optical elusiveness can be explained by optical dilution from the host galaxy plus a star-formation contribution and by their underluminous optical emission due to low accretion rates. Because some of the Sy2 sources have very low accretion rates, are unabsorbed, plus the fact that they lack broad optical emission lines, they are good candidates to be True Sy2 AGN., Comment: 13 pages, 13 figues, accepted for publication in A&A

We study the comoving space density of X-ray-selected luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and the obscured AGN fraction at high redshifts ($3 < z < 5$) in the Subaru/{\it XMM-Newton} Deep Survey (SXDS) field. From an X-ray source catalog with high completeness of optical identification thanks to deep optical images, we select a sample of 30 AGNs at $z > 3$ with intrinsic (de-absorbed and rest-frame 2--10 keV) luminosities of $L_{\rm X} = 10^{44-45}$ erg s$^{-1}$ detected in the 0.5--2 keV band, consisting of 20 and 10 objects with spectroscopic and photometric redshifts, respectively. Utilizing the $1/V_{\rm max}$ method, we confirm that the comoving space density of luminous AGNs decreases with redshift above $z > 3$. When combined with the {\it Chandra}-COSMOS result of Civano et al.\ (2011), the density decline of AGNs with $L_{\rm X} = 10^{44-45}$ erg s$^{-1}$ is well represented by a power law of $(1 + z)^{-6.2 \pm 0.9}$. We also determine the fraction of X-ray obscured AGNs with $N_{\rm H} > 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$ in the Compton-thin population to be 0.54$^{+0.17}_{-0.19}$, by carefully taking into account observational biases including the effects of photon statistics for each source. This result is consistent with an independent determination of the type-2 AGN fraction based on optical properties, for which the fraction is found to be 0.59$\pm$0.09. Comparing our result with that obtained in the local Universe, we conclude that the obscured fraction of luminous AGNs increases significantly from $z=0$ to $z>3$ by a factor of 2.5$\pm$1.1., Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJ

We present our survey for optically faint variable objects using multi-epoch (8-10 epochs over 2-4 years) $i'$-band imaging data obtained with Subaru Suprime-Cam over 0.918 deg$^2$ in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field (SXDF). We found 1040 optically variable objects by image subtraction for all the combinations of images at different epochs. This is the first statistical sample of variable objects at depths achieved with 8-10m class telescopes or HST. The detection limit for variable components is $i'_{\rm{vari}}\sim25.5$ mag. These variable objects were classified into variable stars, supernovae (SNe), and active galactic nuclei (AGN), based on the optical morphologies, magnitudes, colors, and optical-mid-infrared colors of the host objects, spatial offsets of variable components from the host objects, and light curves. Detection completeness was examined by simulating light curves for periodic and irregular variability. We detected optical variability for $36\pm2%$ ($51\pm3%$ for a bright sample with $i'<24.4$ mag) of X-ray sources in the field. Number densities of variable obejcts as functions of time intervals $\Delta{t}$ and variable component magnitudes $i'_{\rm{vari}}$ are obtained. Number densities of variable stars, SNe, and AGN are 120, 489, and 579 objects deg$^{-2}$, respectively. Bimodal distributions of variable stars in the color-magnitude diagrams indicate that the variable star sample consists of bright ($V\sim22$ mag) blue variable stars of the halo population and faint ($V\sim23.5$ mag) red variable stars of the disk population. There are a few candidates of RR Lyrae providing a possible number density of $\sim10^{-2}$ kpc$^{-3}$ at a distance of $>150$ kpc from the Galactic center., Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

We present the properties of active galactic nuclei (AGN) selected by optical variability in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field (SXDF). Based on the locations of variable components and light curves, 211 optically variable AGN were reliably selected. We made three AGN samples; X-ray detected optically non-variable AGN (XA), X-ray detected optically variable AGN (XVA), and X-ray undetected optically variable AGN (VA). In the VA sample, we found a bimodal distribution of the ratio between the variable component flux and the host flux. One of these two components in the distribution, a class of AGN with a faint variable component $i'_{\rm{vari}}\sim25$ mag in bright host galaxies $i'\sim21$ mag, is not seen in the XVA sample. These AGN are expected to have low Eddington ratios if we naively consider a correlation between bulge luminosity and black hole mass. These galaxies have photometric redshifts $z_{\rm{photo}}\sim0.5$ and we infer that they are low-luminosity AGN with radiatively inefficient accretion flows (RIAFs). The properties of the XVA and VA objects and the differences from those of the XA objects can be explained within the unified scheme for AGN. Optical variability selection for AGN is an independent method and could provide a complementary AGN sample which even deep X-ray surveys have not found., Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

We aim to test a method of efficiently selecting X-ray obscured AGN in the 2XMM-Newton EPIC Serendipitous Source Catalogue. By means of a strong correlation established using the XMM-Newton Hard Bright Sample between the intrinsic absorption and the hardness ratio to the 0.5-2.0 keV and 2.0-4.5 keV bands, an efficient way of selecting absorbed sources has been worked out. A hardness ratio selection based on the 2XMM-Newton pre-release Source Catalogue led us to the definition of candidates likely to be obscured in X-rays. X-ray and optical spectral analysis were performed for three objects. Strong absorption (NH > 10^{22} cm^{-2}) was detected from the X-ray analysis, confirming the efficiency of the method used to select obscured sources. The presence of absorption is also revealed in the optical band, although at a significantly lower level than inferred from the X-ray band., Comment: 6 pages, 9 PostScript figures, 2 tables, LaTeX - Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, elisabetta.memola@brera.inaf.it. The original version of the manuscript is available at http://www.brera.inaf.it/utenti/memola/publications.html