Related papers: The redshift distribution of the X-ray background
Hard X-ray selection is the most efficient way to discriminate between accretion-powered sources, such as AGN, from sources dominated by starlight. Hard X-rays are also less affected than other bands by obscuration. We have then carried out…
We investigate the X-ray number counts in the 1-2 Ms Chandra Deep Fields (CDFs) to determine the contributions of faint X-ray source populations to the extragalactic X-ray background (XRB). X-ray sources were separated into Active Galactic…
Fluctuations of the gamma-ray background (GRB) are investigated. It is assumed that the GRB is produced by discrete sources. Two basic classes of objects as dominant contributors to the GRB are considered: a) blazars and b) starburst…
We searched for X-ray serendipitous sources in over 370 Swift-XRT fields centered on gamma ray bursts detected between 2004 and 2008 and observed with total exposures ranging from 10 ks to over 1 Ms. This defines the Swift Serendipitous…
We have incorporated the description of the X-ray properties of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) into a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, adopting physically motivated scaling laws for accretion triggered by galaxy encounters. Our model…
We present the results of our investigation of the composition of the diffuse soft X-ray background emission (SXRB). Combining data of the Leiden/Dwingeloo HI Survey and the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS), we set up a radiation transport…
We summarise our recent work on the faint galaxy contribution to the cosmic X-ray background (XRB). At bright X-ray fluxes (in the ROSAT pass band), broad line QSOs dominate the X-ray source population, but at fainter fluxes there is…
We review the current understanding of the diffuse gamma-ray background (DGRB). The DGRB is what remains of the total measured gamma-ray emission after the subtraction of the resolved sources and of the diffuse Galactic foregrounds. It is…
We provide important new constraints on the nature and redshift distribution of optically faint (R>25) X-ray sources in the Chandra Deep Field South Survey. We show that we can derive accurate photometric redshifts for the spectroscopically…
Fluctuations of the soft X-ray background are investigated using harmonic analysis. A section of the ROSAT All-Sky Survey around the north galactic pole is used. The flux distribution is expanded into a set of harmonic functions and the…
We study the cosmic X-ray background (CXB) intensity variations on large angular scales using slew data of the RXTE observatory. We detect intensity variations up to ~2% on angular scales of 20--40deg. These variations are partly correlated…
We present a new measurement of the cosmic X-ray background (CXRB) in the 1.5-7 keV energy band, performed by exploiting the Swift X-ray telescope (XRT) data archive. We also present a CXRB spectral model in a wider energy band (1.5-200…
We explore the implications of the discovery of hard, power-law X-ray sources in the spectra of nearby elliptical galaxies for the origin of the X-ray background. The spectra of these sources are consistent with models of thermal…
In this article we review the measurements and understanding of the X-ray background (XRB), discovered by Giacconi and collaborators 35 years ago. We start from the early history and the debate whether the XRB is due to a single,…
We present here the analysis of X-rays point sources detected in several observations available in the XMM-Newton public archive. We focused, in particular, on energies below 1 keV, which are of particular relevance to the understanding of…
Context: Redshifts are fundamental for our understanding of extragalactic X-ray sources. Ambiguous counterpart associations, expensive optical spectroscopy and/or multimission multiwavelength coverage to resolve degeneracies make estimation…
We derive an X-ray luminosity function for active galactic nuclei (AGN) that accounts for the X-ray source counts in the 0.5-2.0 and 2-10 keV energy ranges, the redshift distribution of AGNs in the ROSAT Deep Survey (RDS), as well as the…
Large-scale fluctuations of the X-ray background are investigated using the ROSAT All-Sky Survey. The autocorrelation function of the extragalactic background at 1 keV is determined at separations 0.1 - 40 deg. We detect a significant…
The cosmic X-ray background (XRB) spectrum and active galaxy number counts encode essential information about the spectral evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and have been successfully modeled by XRB synthesis models for many years.…
The XLF of AGN offers a robust tool to study the evolution and the growth of SMBHs over cosmic time. Owing to the limited area probed by X-ray surveys, optical surveys are routinely used to probe the accretion in the high redshift Universe…