Related papers: Slicing the Torus: Obscuring Structures in Quasars
Most of the local active galactic nucleus (AGN) population is obscured and much of the X-ray background originates in obscured AGNs. The contribution of obscured accretion to the growth of massive black holes is discussed here. The recent…
The hard X-ray emission of active galactic nuclei (AGN), and in particular, the reflection component, is shaped by the innermost and outer regions of the galactic nucleus. Our main goal is to investigate the variation of the Compton hump…
We present the analysis of a sample of 35 candidate Compton thick (CT-) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) selected in the nearby Universe (average redshift <z>~0.03) with the Swift-BAT 100-month survey. All sources have available NuSTAR data,…
X-ray emission detection in a galaxy is one of the efficient tools for selecting Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). However, many X-ray-selected AGNs are not easily selected as AGNs by their optical emission. These galaxies, so-called optically…
Infrared observations of active galactic nucleus (AGN) reveal emission from the putative dusty circumnuclear 'torus' invoked by AGN unification, that is heated up by radiation from the central accreting black hole (BH). The strong 9.7 and…
The circumnuclear material around Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is one of the essential components of the obscuration-based unification model. However, our understanding of the circumnuclear material in terms of its geometrical shape,…
Roughly 10% of all quasars exhibit Broad Absorption Line (BAL) features which appear to arise in material outflowing at high velocity from the active galactic nucleus (AGN). The details of this outflow are, however, very poorly constrained…
We have conducted spectropolarimetry of 12 type II (obscured) quasar candidates selected from the spectroscopic database of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey based on their emission line properties. Polarization was detected in all objects, with…
Deep surveys of {\em Chandra} and {\em HST} (Hubble Space Telescope) show that active galactic nucleus (AGN) populations are changing with hard X-ray luminosities. This arises an interesting question whether the dusty torus is evolving with…
An accretion disk in an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) harbors and shields dust from external illumination: at the mid-plane of the disk around a $M_{{\rm BH}}=10^{7}M_{\odot}$ black hole, dust can exist at $0.1$pc from the black hole,…
The first part of this article is a historical and physical introduction to quasars and their close cousins, called Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). In the second part, I argue that our progress in understanding them has been unsatisfactory…
Obscured AGN represent a significant fraction of the entire AGN population, especially at high redshift (~70% at z=3--5). They are often characterized by the presence of large gas and dust reservoirs that are thought to sustain and possibly…
We combine near-to-mid-IR Spitzer data with shorter wavelength observations (optical to X-rays) to get insights on the properties of a sample of luminous, obscured Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We aim at modeling their broad-band Spectral…
The presence of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) can strongly affect its host. Due to the copious radiative power of the nucleus, the effects of radiative feedback can be detected over the entire host galaxy and sometimes well into the…
By considering the radiative force by a circumnuclear starburst as well as an AGN, we analyze the equilibrium configuration and the stability of dusty gas in the circumnuclear regions. It is found that the radiative force by an intensive…
The recent Spitzer detections of the 9.7 micron Si--O silicate emission in type 1 AGNs provide support for the AGN unification scheme. The properties of the silicate dust are of key importance to understanding the physical, chemical and…
A fraction of active galactic nuclei do not show the classical Seyfert-type signatures in their optical spectra, i.e. they are optically "elusive". X-ray observations are an optimal tool to identify this class of objects. We combine new…
A torus of reduced differential rotation can form in the inner $\siml 10$pc core of active galactic nuclei incurring a density enhancement that can account for obscuration of X-rays in Seyferts when the initial inner core to black hole mass…
We have recently initiated the first spectroscopic dust reverberation programme on active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the near-infrared. Spectroscopy enables measurement of dust properties, such as flux, temperature and covering factor, with…
The size of the dust torus in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and their high-luminosity counterparts, quasars, can be inferred from the time delay between UV/optical accretion disk continuum variability and the response in the mid-infrared…