Related papers: New active galactic nuclei science cases with inte…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are highly energetic astrophysical sources powered by accretion onto supermassive black holes in galaxies, which present unique observational signatures covering the full electromagnetic spectrum (and more) over…
We present a general review of the current knowledge of IRAS 20551-4250 and its circumnuclear environment. This Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxy is one of the most puzzling sources of its class in the nearby Universe: the near-IR spectrum is…
Following on from IRAS, ISO has provided a huge advancement in our knowledge of the phenomenology of the infrared (IR) emission of normal galaxies and the underlying physical processes. Highlights include: the discovery of an extended cold…
Considerable observational evidence suggests that the activity of supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei is transient. The term ``active galactic nuclei archaeology'' has even been coined. This implies the possibility of reconstructing…
The obscuring circumnuclear torus of dusty molecular gas is one of the major components of active galactic nuclei (AGN). The torus can be studied by analyzing the time response of its infrared (IR) dust emission to variations in the AGN…
Current mm-interferometers can provide a complete view of the distribution and kinematics of molecular gas in the circumnuclear disks of nearby galaxies. High-resolution CO maps are paramount in order to track down the feeding of active…
The enormous amounts of infrared (IR) radiation emitted by luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs, L_IR=10^11-10^12Lsun) and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs, L_IR>10^12Lsun) are produced by dust heated by intense star formation (SF)…
Among the most extreme objects in the Universe, active galactic nuclei (AGN) are luminous centers of galaxies where a black hole feeds on surrounding matter. The variability patterns of the light emitted by an AGN contain information about…
In this paper we give a brief review of the astrophysics of active galactic nuclei (AGN). After a general introduction motivating the study of AGNs, we discuss our present understanding of the inner workings of the central engines, most…
The study of the content, distribution and kinematics of interstellar gas is a key to understand the origin and maintenance of both starburst and nuclear (AGN) activity in galaxies. The processes involved in AGN fueling encompass a wide…
We summarize recent results on the infrared (IR) nuclear properties of Seyfert galaxies. 100% of all Seyfert 1-1.9$ and ~50% of all Seyfert 2s in the CfA and RSA samples observed with HST/NICMOS show nuclear point sources at 1.6micron. We…
We present the first results from a mid-infrared survey of local Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) using the CanariCam (CC) instrument on the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). We are obtaining sub-arcsecond angular resolution (0.3-0.6…
The dusty environments (= "dust tori'') of AGN are now in reach of observations. Following our paper I on ground-based mid-IR spectro-photometry (H\"onig et al. 2010), we present an upgrade to our radiative transfer model of 3-dimensional…
New tools from Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) mid-infrared spectroscopy have recently become available to determine the power sources of dust-obscured ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs). We compare ISO classifications - starburst or…
The radio-loud AGN unification model associates powerful radio galaxies with radio-loud quasars and blazars. In analogy with the radio-quiet scheme, the nuclear regions of objects showing only narrow emission lines in their optical spectrum…
Black hole masses for samples of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are currently estimated from single-epoch optical spectra. In particular, the size of the broad-line emitting region needed to compute the black hole mass is derived from the…
We present calculations of AGN winds at ~parsec scales, along with the associated obscuration. We take into account the pressure of infrared radiation on dust grains and the interaction of X-rays from a central black hole with hot and cold…
In order to better understand how active galactic nuclei (AGN) effect the interstellar media of their host galaxies, we perform a meta-analysis of the CO emission for a sample of $z=0.01-4$ galaxies from the literature with existing CO…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are generally accepted to be powered by the release of gravitational energy in a compact accretion disk surrounding a massive black hole. Such disks are also necessary to collimate powerful radio jets seen in…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) can be probed by at different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum: e.g., radio observations reveal the nature of their relativistic jets and their magnetic fields, and complementarily, X-ray observations…