Statistical properties of local active galactic nuclei inferred from the RXTE 3–20 keV all-sky survey

We compiled a sample of 95 AGNs serendipitously detected in the 3–20 keV band at Galactic latitude during the RXTE slew survey (XSS, Revnivtsev et al. 2004), and utilize it to study the statistical properties of the local population of AGNs, including the X-ray luminosity function and absorption distribution. We find that among low X-ray luminosity ( erg s-1) AGNs, the ratio of absorbed (characterized by intrinsic absorption in the range 1022 cm cm-2) and unabsorbed ( cm-2) objects is 2:1, while this ratio drops to less than 1:5 for higher luminosity AGNs. The summed X-ray output of AGNs with erg s-1 estimated here is smaller than the earlier estimated total X-ray volume emissivity in the local Universe, suggesting that a comparable X-ray flux may be produced together by lower luminosity AGNs, non-active galaxies and clusters of galaxies. Finally, we present a sample of 35 AGN candidates, composed of unidentified XSS sources.