Active Galactic Nuclei And Their Large-Scale Structure: An eROSITA Mock Catalogue

DOI: 
10.1093/mnras/stz1390
Publication date: 
01/05/2019
Main author: 
Comparat, J.
IAA authors: 
Prada, F.
Authors: 
Comparat, J.;Merloni, A.;Salvato, M.;Nandra, K.;Boller, T.;Georgakakis, A.;Finoguenov, A.;Dwelly, T.;Buchner, J.;Del Moro, A.;Clerc, N.;Wang, Y.;Zhao, G.;Prada, F.;Yepes, G.;Brusa, M.;Krumpe, M.;Liu, T.
Journal: 
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Publication type: 
Article
Pages: 
2005-2029
Abstract: 
In the context of the upcoming SRG/eROSITA survey, we present an N-body simulation-based mock catalogue for X-ray selected AGN samples. The model reproduces the observed hard X-ray AGN luminosity function (XLF) and the soft X-ray logN-logS from redshift 0 to 6. The XLF is reproduced to within ±5% and the logN-logS to within ±20%. We develop a joint X-ray - optical extinction and classification model. We adopt a set of empirical spectral energy distributions to predict observed magnitudes in the UV, optical and NIR. With the latest eROSITA all sky survey sensitivity model, we create a high-fidelity full-sky mock catalogue of X-ray AGN. It predicts their distributions in right ascension, declination, redshift and fluxes. Using empirical medium resolution optical spectral templates and an exposure time calculator, we find that 1.1 × 10<SUP>6</SUP> (4 × 10<SUP>5</SUP>) fiber-hours are needed to follow-up spectroscopically from the ground the detected X-ray AGN with an optical magnitude 21 &lt; r &lt; 22.8 (22.8 &lt; r &lt; 25) with a 4-m (8-m) class multi-object spectroscopic facility. We find that future clustering studies will measure the AGN bias to the percent level at redshift z &lt; 1.2 and should discriminate possible scenarios of galaxy-AGN co-evolution. We predict the accuracy to which the baryon acoustic oscillation standard ruler will be measured using X-ray AGN: better than 3% for AGN between redshift 0.5 to 3 and better than 1% using the Lyα forest of X-ray QSOs discovered between redshift 2 and 3. eROSITA will provide an outstanding set of targets for future galaxy evolution and cosmological studies.
Database: 
ADS
SCOPUS
URL: 
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85074450009&doi=10.1093%2fmnras%2fstz1390&partnerID=40&md5=ad0d48ae5ea6be80876b614350b9e743
ADS Bibcode: 
2019MNRAS.487.2005C
Keywords: 
cosmology;active galaxies;Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies;Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics