Related papers: Obscuration-dependent evolution of Active Galactic…

Highly obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) are common in nearby galaxies, but are difficult to observe beyond the local Universe, where they are expected to significantly contribute to the black hole accretion rate density. Furthermore,…

We use the INTEGRAL all-sky hard X-ray survey to perform a statistical study of a representative sample of nearby AGN. Our entire all-sky sample consists of 127 AGN, of which 91 are confidently detected (>5 sigma) on the time-averaged map…

We present an X-ray stacking analysis of $\sim$75,000 star-forming galaxies between $0.1<z<5.0$ using the Chandra COSMOS Legacy survey to study the X-ray emission of low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGN) and its connection to host…

Many X-ray bright active galactic nuclei (AGN) are predicted to follow an extended stage of obscured black hole growth. In support of this picture we examine the X-ray undetected AGNs in the COSMOS field and compare their host galaxies with…

To fully understand cosmic black hole growth we need to constrain the population of heavily obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) at the peak of cosmic black hole growth ($z\sim$1-3). Sources with obscuring column densities higher than…

The "torus" obscurer of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is poorly understood in terms of its density, substructure and physical mechanisms. Large X-ray surveys provide model boundary constraints, for both Compton-thin and Compton-thick levels…

Using a suite of X-ray, mid-IR and optical active galactic nuclei (AGN) luminosity indicators, we search for Compton-thick (CT) AGNs with intrinsic L_X>10^42erg/s at z~0.03-0.2, a region of parameter space which is currently poorly…

The cosmic X-ray background (CXB) is dominated by the obscured and unobscured coronal light of active galactic nuclei (AGN). At energies below 10 keV, the CXB can be well explained by models taking into account the known AGN and the…

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 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…

The origin of obscuration in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is still an open debate. In particular, it is unclear what drives the relative contributions to the line-of-sight column densities from galaxy-scale and torus-linked obscuration. The…

Hard X-ray-selected samples of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) provide one of the cleanest views of supermassive black hole accretion, but are biased against objects obscured by Compton-thick gas column densities of $N_{\rm H}$ $>$ 10$^{24}$…

The fraction of AGN luminosity obscured by dust and re-emitted in the mid-IR is critical for understanding AGN evolution, unification, and parsec-scale AGN physics. For unobscured (Type-1) AGN, where we have a direct view of the accretion…

(abridged) We take advantage of the deep Chandra and Spitzer coverage of a large area (more than 10 times the area covered by the Chandra deep fields, CDFs in the COSMOS field, to extend the search of highly obscured, Compton-thick active…

We present new observational determinations of the evolution of the 2-10keV X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of AGN. We utilise data from a number of surveys including both the 2Ms Chandra Deep Fields and the AEGIS-X 200ks survey, enabling…

We construct the rest-frame 2--10 keV intrinsic X-ray luminosity function of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) from a combination of X-ray surveys from the all-sky Swift BAT survey to the Chandra Deep Field-South. We use ~3200 AGNs in our…

AGN are known to have complex X-ray spectra that depend on both the properties of the accreting SMBH (e.g. mass, accretion rate) and the distribution of obscuring material in its vicinity ("torus"). Often however, simple and even unphysical…

We present a detailed X-ray spectral analysis of 1152 AGNs selected in the Chandra Deep Fields (CDFs), in order to identify highly obscured AGNs ($N_{\rm H} > 10^{23}\ \rm cm^{-2}$). By fitting spectra with physical models, 436 (38%)…

AIMS. This work addresses the AGN IR-selection dependency on intrinsic source luminosity and obscuration, in order to identify and charaterise biases which could affect conclusions in studies. METHODS. We study IR-selected AGN in the…

We present luminosity functions derived from a spectroscopic survey of AGN selected from Spitzer Space Telescope imaging surveys. Selection in the mid-infrared is significantly less affected by dust obscuration. We can thus compare the…