New hope for obscured AGN: the PRIMA-NewAthena alliance

Abstract

Understanding the AGN-galaxy co-evolution, feedback processes, and the evolution of Black Hole Accretion rate Density (BHAD) requires accurately estimating the contribution of obscured Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). However, detecting these sources is challenging due to significant extinction at the wavelengths typically used to trace their emission. We evaluate the capabilities of the proposed far-infrared observatory PRIMA and its synergies with the X-ray observatory NewAthena in detecting AGN and in measuring the BHAD. Starting from X-ray background synthesis models, we simulate the performance of NewAthena and of PRIMA in Deep and Wide surveys. Our results show that the combination of these facilities is a powerful tool for selecting and characterizing all types of AGN. Although NewAthena is particularly effective at detecting the most luminous, the unobscured, and the moderately obscured AGN, PRIMA excels at identifying heavily obscured sources, including Compton-thick AGN (of which we expect 7500 detections per deg2). We find that PRIMA will detect ⁓60 times more sources than Herschel over the same area and will allow us to accurately measure the BHAD evolution up to z ⁓ 8, better than any current IR or X-ray survey, finally revealing the true contribution of Compton-thick AGN to the BHAD evolution.