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We present the results of spectroscopic, narrow-band and X-ray observations of a z= 2.30 protocluster in the field of the QSO HS 1700+643. Using a sample of BX/MD galaxies, which are selected to be at z ~ 2.2–2.7 by their rest-frame ultraviolet colours, we find that there are five protocluster AGN which have been identified by characteristic emission-lines in their optical/near-IR spectra; this represents an enhancement over the field significant at >98.5 per cent confidence. Using a ~200-ks Chandra/ACIS-I observation of this field we detect a total of 161 X-ray point sources to a Poissonian false-probability limit of 4 × 10^(−6) and identify eight of these with BX/MD galaxies. Two of these are spectroscopically confirmed protocluster members and are also classified as emission-line AGN. When compared to a similarly selected field sample, the analysis indicates this is also evidence for an enhancement of X-ray selected BX/MD AGN over the field, significant at >99 per cent confidence. Deep Lyα narrow-band imaging reveals that a total of 4/123 Lyα emitters (LAEs) are found to be associated with X-ray sources, with two of these confirmed protocluster members and one highly likely member. We do not find a significant enhancement of AGN activity in this LAE sample over that of the field (result is significant at only 87 per cent confidence). The X-ray emitting AGN fractions for the BX/MD and LAE samples are found to be 6.9^(+9.2)_(−4.4) and 2.9^(+2.9)_(−1.6) per cent, respectively, for protocluster AGN with L_(2-10 keV)≥ 4.6 × 10^(43) erg s^(−1) at z= 2.30. These findings are similar to results from the z= 3.09 protocluster in the SSA 22 field found by Lehmer et al. (2009), in that both suggest AGN activity is favoured in dense environments at z > 2.

In this paper, we discuss the optical and X-ray spectral properties of the sources detected in a single 200-ks Chandra pointing in the Groth-Westphal Strip region. A wealth of optical photometric and spectroscopic data are available in this field providing optical identifications and redshift determinations for the X-ray population. The optical photometry and spectroscopy used here are primarily from the Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe 2 (DEEP2) survey with additional redshifts obtained from the literature. These are complemented with the deeper (r ≈ 26 mag) multiwaveband data (ugriz) from the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey to estimate photometric redshifts and to optically identify sources fainter than the DEEP2 magnitude limit (R_(AB)≈ 24.5 mag). We focus our study on the 2–10 keV selected sample comprising 97 sources to the limit ≈ 8 × 10^(−1)6 erg s^(−1) cm^(−2), this being the most complete in terms of optical identification rate (86 per cent) and redshift determination fraction (63 per cent; both spectroscopic and photometric). We first construct the redshift distribution of the sample which shows a peak at z≈ 1. This is in broad agreement with models where less luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs) evolve out to z≈ 1 with powerful quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) peaking at higher redshift, z≈ 2. Evolution similar to that of broad-line QSOs applied to the entire AGN population (both types I and II) does not fit the data. We also explore the observedNH distribution of the sample and estimate a fraction of obscured AGN (N_H > 10^(22) cm^(−2)) of 48 ± 9 per cent. This is found to be consistent with both a luminosity-dependent intrinsic N_H distribution, where less luminous systems comprise a higher fraction of type II AGNs and models with a fixed ratio 2:1 between types I and II AGNs. We further compare our results with those obtained in deeper and shallower surveys. We argue that a luminosity-dependent parametrization of the intrinsic NH distribution is required to account for the fraction of obscured AGN observed in different samples over a wide range of fluxes.