Related papers: Resolving the extragalactic hard X-ray background

We report results of a serendipitous hard X-ray (3--20 keV), nearly all-sky (|b|>10deg) survey based on RXTE/PCA observations performed during satellite reorientations in 1996--2002. The survey is 80% (90%) complete to a 4$\sigma$ limiting…

We present observations of a sample of optically-faint, hard X-ray sources of the kind likely to be responsible for much of the hard X-ray background. We confirm that such sources are easily detected in the near-infrared, and find that they…

The deepest extragalactic X-ray observation, the 2 Ms Chandra Deep Field North (CDF-N), resolves ~80% of the total extragalactic cosmic X-ray background (CXB) in the 1-2 keV band. Recent work has shown that 70% of the remaining CXB flux is…

The deep X-ray surveys performed by the two major X-ray observatories on flight, Chandra and XMM, are being resolving the bulk of the cosmic X-ray background (XRB) in the 2-10 keV energy band, where the sky flux is dominated by…

We report on the first ten identifications of sources serendipitously detected by the NuSTAR to provide the first sensitive census of the cosmic X-ray background (CXB) source population at >10 keV. We find that these NuSTAR-detected sources…

The origin of the soft X-ray emission in obscured AGN is still largely unknown. However, important progresses have been made thanks to the high energy and spatial resolution of XMM-Newton and Chandra. We review here the latest results on…

The contribution of discrete sources to the gamma--ray background is modeled. Flat spectrum radio quasars are known to make a substantial contribution to the hard (E > 100 MeV) background. The so called ``MeV bump", however, cannot be…

We will briefly discuss the importance of sensitive X-ray observations above a few tens of keV for a better understanding of the physical mechanisms associated to the Supermassive Black Hole primary emission in both radio quiet and radio…

The emission from individual X-ray sources in the Chandra Deep Fields and XMM-Newton Lockman Hole shows that almost half of the hard X-ray background above 6 keV is unresolved and implies the existence of a missing population of heavily…

We investigate the serendipitous X-ray source population revealed in XMM-Newton observations targeted in the Galactic Plane within the region 315<l<45 and |b|<2.5 deg. Our study focuses on a sample of 2204 X-ray sources at intermediate to…

The nature of the low- to intermediate-luminosity (Lx$\,\sim 10^{32-34}$ erg s$^{-1}$) source population revealed in hard band (2-10 keV) X-ray surveys of the Galactic Plane is poorly understood. To overcome such problem we cross-correlated…

Galactic X-ray emission is a manifestation of various high-energy phenomena and processes. The brightest X-ray sources are typically accretion-powered objects: active galactic nuclei and low- or high-mass X-ray binaries. Such objects with…

We present an analysis of the X-ray spectral properties of 61 hard X-ray selected (2-8 keV) sources from the bright ($f_{2-8 keV}>10^{-14}$ \funits) {\it XMM-Newton}/2dF survey. This comprises of 9 {\it XMM-Newton} pointings in the North…

Models for the origin of the hard X-ray background have suggested that sources with the most accretion activity lie hidden in highly obscured AGN. We report on our study of hard, serendipitous sources in the fields of Chandra clusters with…

A review of recent developments in the field of X-ray surveys, especially in the hard (2-10 and 5-10 keV) bands, is given. A new detailed comparison between the measurements in the hard band and extrapolations from ROSAT counts, that takes…

Deep X-ray surveys have shown that the cosmic X-ray background (XRB) is largely due to the accretion onto supermassive black holes, integrated over the cosmic time. These surveys have resolved more than 80% of the 0.1-10 keV X-ray…

We present an analysis of six 12 um selected Seyfert 2 galaxies that have been reported to be unabsorbed in the X-ray. By comparing the luminosities of these galaxies in the mid-IR (12um), optical ([O III]) and hard X-ray (2-10 keV), we…

We present a spectroscopic study of 41 hard X-ray sources detected serendipitously with high significance (> 5 sigma in the 2-10 keV band) in seven EPIC performance/verification phase observations. The large collecting area of EPIC allows…

We use Chandra deep observations of the Galactic Center (GC) region to improve the constraints on the unresolved fraction of the Galactic X-ray background (also known as the Galactic ridge X-ray emission). We emphasize the importance of…

Hard X-ray observations are the most efficient way to discriminate accretion-powered sources from star-light. Furthermore, hard X-rays are less affected than other bands by obscuration. For these reasons the advent of imaging instruments…