The ROSAT Wide Field Camera Extragalactic Survey

We report the results of a new analysis of the ROSAT Wide Field Camera (WFC) all-sky survey data, designed to detect extragalactic sources of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation in regions of low Galactic NH. We identify a total of 19 active galactic nuclei (AGN), more than double the number of confirmed AGN in the published WFC (2RE) survey. Our sample contains eight narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies, making this the first reasonably sized, complete sample of these extreme AGN, along with six broad-line Seyfert 1s and five BL Lacertae objects. These EUV-selected sources typically have steep soft X-ray spectra with a mean power-law energy index αX≈−2. The derived AGN luminosity function is rather flat and appears to cut off above a luminosity of 1046 erg s−1 keV−1, measured monochromatically at 200 eV. Narrow-line Seyfert 1s account for roughly half of the local (z≈ 0) volume emissivity in the EUV band.