2013MNRAS.434.1593M

Surveys of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in different observational regimes seem to give different answers for the behaviour of the obscured fraction with luminosity. Based on the complex spectra seen in recent studies, we note that partial covering could significantly change the apparent luminosities of many AGN, even after apparent X-ray absorption correction. We explore whether this effect could reproduce the observed dependence of the obscured fraction on the apparent X-ray luminosities seen between 2 and 10 keV. We can reproduce the observed trend in a model where 33 percent of AGN are unobscured, 30 percent are heavily buried and 37 percent have a range of intermediate partial coverings. Our model is also tentatively successful at reproducing observed trends in the X-ray versus infrared luminosity ratio for AGN.