Related papers: Low accretion rates at the AGN cosmic downsizing e…
The bulk of X-ray spectroscopic studies of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are focused on local ($z < 0.1$) sources with low-to-moderate ($< 0.3$) Eddington ratio ($\lambda_\mathrm{Edd}$). It is then mandatory to overcome this limitation and…
Bolometric luminosities and Eddington ratios of both X-ray selected broad-line (Type-1) and narrow-line (Type-2) AGN from the XMM-Newton survey in the COSMOS field are presented. The sample is composed by 929 AGN (382 Type-1 AGN and 547…
We have determined the cosmological evolution of the density of AGN and of their Nh distribution as a function of the un-absorbed 2-10 keV luminosity up to redshift 4. We used the HELLAS2XMM sample combined with other published catalogs,…
The active galactic nuclei X-ray luminosity function traces actively accreting supermassive black holes and is essential for the study of the properties of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) population, black hole evolution, and galaxy-black…
We use morphological information of X-ray selected AGN hosts to set limits on the fraction of the accretion density of the Universe at z~1 that is not likely to be associated with major mergers. Deep X-ray observations are combined with…
High-redshift ($z>2$) blazars, with relativistic jets aligned toward us, probe the most powerful end of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) population. We aim at determining the black hole masses and mass accretion rates of high-$z$ blazars in…
Deep X-ray surveys have shown that the cosmic X-ray background (XRB) is largely due to the accretion onto supermassive black holes, integrated over the cosmic time. These surveys have resolved more than 80% of the 0.1-10 keV X-ray…
We summarize results from a survey of radiation-dominated black hole accretion flows across a wide range of mass accretion rates, as well as two values of black hole spin and initial magnetic field geometry. These models apply an algorithm…
We present the rest-frame optical morphologies of active galactic nucleus (AGN) host galaxies at 1.5<z<3, using near-infrared imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3, the first such study of AGN host galaxies at these…
We present an estimate of the space density of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) at z=3. Combining deep X-ray data with Lyman Break Galaxy (LBG) colour-selection in the rest-frame UV makes for highly efficient identification of AGN in a narrow…
We study the distribution of accretion rates onto supermassive black holes (SMBH) in AGNs of the local Universe ($z<0.15$) based on near-infrared and hard X-ray surveys (2MASS and Swift/BAT). Using sufficiently accurate black hole mass…
The X-ray Background (XRB) probably originates from the integrated X-ray emission of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Modelling of its flat spectrum implies considerable absorption in most AGN. Compton down-scattering means that sources in…
We investigate the role of host galaxy classification and black hole mass in a heterogeneous sample of 276 mostly nearby (z<0.1) X-ray and IR selected AGN. Around 90% of Seyfert 1 AGN in bulge-dominated host galaxies (without disk…
We build a simple physical model to study the high-redshift active galactic Nucleus (AGN) evolution within the co-evolution framework of central black holes (BHs) and their host galaxies. The correlation between the circular velocity of a…
The cosmic history of supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth is important for understanding galaxy evolution, reionization and the physics of accretion. Recent NuSTAR, Swift-BAT and \textit{Chandra} hard X-ray surveys have provided new…
We use new central stellar velocity dispersions and nuclear X-ray and Halpha luminosities for the Palomar survey of nearby galaxies to investigate the distribution of nuclear bolometric luminosities and Eddington ratios for their central…
Research over the past decade has shown diminishing empirical evidence for major galaxy mergers being a dominating or even important mechanism for the growth of supermassive black holes in galaxies and the triggering of optically or X-ray…
We investigate the star-forming properties of 1620 X-ray selected AGN host galaxies as a function of their specific X-ray luminosity (i.e., X-ray luminosity per unit host stellar mass) -- a proxy of the Eddington ratio. Our motivation is to…
We present a study of the connection between black hole accretion, star formation, and galaxy morphology at z<=2.5. We focus on active galactic nuclei (AGNs) selected by their mid-IR power-law emission. By fitting optical to far-IR…
Observational studies have revealed a "downsizing" trend in black hole (BH) growth: the number densities of luminous AGN peak at higher redshifts than those of faint AGN. This would seem to imply that massive black holes formed before low…