Related papers: The peak region of the extragalactic background ra…
The fraction of AGN with photoelectric absorption in the X-rays ranging from NH of 10^{22} up to about 10^{24} cm^{-2} (Compton-thin) appears observationally to be anticorrelated to their luminosity Lx. This recently found evidence is used…
A review of the status of the knowledge in the field of High-energy cosmic particles is presented. The spectrum, arrival direction distribution and composition measurements are summarized, together with some implications for the…
Combined investigations of the clustering properties of galaxies of different spectral type and high-redshift quasars strongly suggest local ellipticals to be the parent population of optically bright Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). However,…
I present an overview of observational studies of quasars of all types, with particular emphasis on X-ray observational studies. The presentation is based on the most popularly accepted unified picture of quasars - collectively referred to…
From the earliest extragalactic infrared studies AGN have shown themselves to be strong infrared sources and IR surveys have revealed new populations of AGN. I briefly review current motivations for AGN surveys in the infrared and results…
We present an extragalactic population model of the cosmic background light to interpret the rich high-quality survey data in the X-ray and IR bands. The model incorporates star-formation and supermassive black hole (SMBH) accretion in a…
The X-ray background is generated by various classes of objects and variety of emission mechanisms. Relative contribution of individual components depends on energy. The goal is to assess the integral emission of the major components of the…
We discuss the region of transition between galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays. The exact shapes and compositions of these two components contains information about important parameters of powerful astrophysical sources and the…
We probe the role of the directional asymmetry between relativistic outflows to kilo-parsec scale jets in the propagation and acceleration of cosmic rays. Our sample contains powerful AGN hosting dense cluster environments. We attempt a…
Most of the action in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) occurs within a few tens of gravitational radii from the supermassive black hole, where matter in the accretion disk may lose up to almost half of its energy with a copious production of…
Accreting black holes can release enormous amounts of energy to their surroundings, in various forms. Such feedback may profoundly influence a black hole's environment. After briefly reviewing the possible types of feedback, I focus on the…
We review some of the main physical and statistical properties of the X-ray absorber in AGNs. In particular, we review the distribution of the absorbing column density inferred from X-ray observations of various AGN samples. We discuss the…
The properties of X-ray emission from accreting black holes are reviewed. The contemporary observational picture and current status of theoretical understanding of accretion and formation of X-ray radiation in the vicinity of the compact…
The massive black holes in most faint active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and even normal galaxies are still accreting gases, though their accretion rates are very low. Radiatively inefficient accretion flows (RIAFs) are supposed in these faint…
The understanding of the nature of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays is one of the most intriguing open questions for current and future observatories. These particles are expected to be accelerated in extragalactic sources. Because of their…
Theoretical aspects of potential astrophysical sources of the highest energy cosmic rays are discussed, including their energy budget and some issues on particle escape and propagation. After briefly addressing AGN jets and GRBs, we…
Presently there are several classes of detected gamma-ray extragalatic sources. They are mostly associated to active galactic nuclei (AGN) and (at soft gamma rays) to gamma-ray bursts (GRB), but not only. Active galactic nuclei consist of…
The question of the X-ray background has been largely settled over the last 10 years using the ROSAT satellite. About 70-80 % of the soft X-ray background was resolved into discrete sources, which are mainly X-ray and optically unobscured…
The fluctuating brightness of cosmic X-ray sources, particularly accreting black holes and neutron star systems, has enabled enormous progress in understanding the physics of turbulent accretion flows, the behaviour of matter on the…
The Constellation X-ray Mission is a high throughput X-ray facility emphasizing observations at high spectral resolution (E/\Delta E \sim 300-3000), and broad energy bandpass (0.25-40 keV). Constellation-X will provide a factor of nearly…