X-ray spectral analysis of optically faint sources in the Chandra deep fields

We present the results of a detailed spectral analysis of optically faint hard X-ray sources in the Chandra deep fields selected on the basis of their high X-ray to optical flux ratio (X/O). The stacked spectra of high X/O sources in both Chandra deep fields, fitted with a single power-law model, are much harder than the spectrum of the X-ray background (XRB). The average slope is also insensitive to the 2–8 keV flux, being approximately constant around Γ≃ 1 over more than two decades, strongly indicating that high X/O sources represent the most obscured component of the XRB. For about half of the sample, a redshift estimate (in most of the cases a photometric redshift) is available from the literature. Individual fits of a few of the brightest objects and of stacked spectra in different redshift bins imply column densities in the range  10²²–10^23.5 cm⁻²  . A trend of increasing absorption towards higher redshifts is suggested.