Related papers: A Simple Method for Predicting $N_H$ Variability i…
The basic unified model of active galactic nuclei (AGN) invokes an anisotropic obscuring structure, usually referred to as a torus, to explain AGN obscuration as an angle-dependent effect. We present a new grid of X-ray spectral templates…
Identifying Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) through their X-ray emission is efficient, but necessarily biased against X-ray-faint objects. We aim to characterize this bias by comparing X-ray-selected AGNs to the ones identified through…
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 inevitable spread in properties of the toroidal obscuration of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) invalidates the widespread notion that type 1 and 2 AGNs are intrinsically the same objects, drawn randomly from the distribution of torus…
The luminous electromagnetic emission from distant active galactic nuclei (AGNs) including quasars is believed to be powered by accretion onto super-massive black holes (SMBHs). In the standard unification model for AGNs a dusty torus…
We present a new method to predict the line-of-sight column density (NH) values of active galactic nuclei (AGN) based on mid-infrared (MIR), soft, and hard X-ray data. We developed a multiple linear regression machine learning algorithm…
The anisotropic nature of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is thought to be responsible for the observational differences between type-1 (pole-on) and type-2 (edge-on) nearby Seyfert-like galaxies. In this picture, the detection of emission…
The physics behind the dramatic and unpredictable X-ray variability of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) has eluded astronomers since it was discovered. We present an analysis of Swift XRT observations of 44 AGN with at least 20 Swift…
Variability detected in galaxies is usually attributed to their active galactic nuclei (AGNs). While all AGNs are intrinsically variable, the AGN unification model predicts that type~2 AGNs rarely vary because their engines are blocked by…
The X-ray color (hardness ratio) of optically undetected X-ray sources can be used to distinguish obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at low and intermediate redshift from viable high-redshift (i.e., z>5) AGN candidates. This will help…
In a previous paper, we studied two statistical methods used to analyse the variability of active galactic nuclei (AGNs): the C and F statistics. Applying them to observed differential light-curves of 39 AGNs, we found that, even though the…
An integral part of the Unified Model for Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) is an axisymmetric obscuring medium, which is commonly depicted as a torus of gas and dust surrounding the central engine. However, a robust, dynamical model of the…
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…
We perform long-term ($\approx 15$ yr, observed-frame) X-ray variability analyses of the 68 brightest radio-quiet active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the 6 Ms $Chandra$ Deep Field-South (CDF-S) survey; the majority are in the redshift range of…
Variability is a property shared by virtually all active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and was adopted as a criterion for their selection using data from multi epoch surveys. Low Luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs) are contaminated by the light of their…
In this study, we demonstrate some of the caveats in common statistical methods used for analysing astronomical variability timescales. We consider these issues specifically in the context of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and use a more…
The analysis of the variability of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at different wavelengths and the study of possible correlations among different spectral windows are nowadays a major field of inquiry. Optical variability has been largely…
The unified model of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) proposes that different AGN optical spectral types are caused by different viewing angles with respect to an obscuring 'torus'. Therefore, this model predicts that type 1 and type 2 AGNs…
Low luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGN) probe accretion physics in the low Eddington regime and can provide additional clues about galaxy evolution. AGN variability is ubiquitous and thus provides a reliable tool for finding AGN. We…
We propose an explanation of the variability of AGN based on a cloud model of accretion onto a black hole. These clouds, present at a distance of 10-100 Schwarzschild radii, possibly come from the disrupted innermost disk and they can…