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 |b| > 10° 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 (L 3-20 43.5 erg s-1) AGNs, the ratio of absorbed (characterized by intrinsic absorption in the range 1022 cm-2 H 24 cm-2) and unabsorbed (NH 22 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 L3-20 > 1041 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.