Related papers: Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are axisymmetric systems to first order; their observed properties are likely strong functions of inclination with respect to our line of sight, yet the specific inclinations of all but a few AGN are generally…
(Abridged) Cold and warm absorbers have beeen detected in all types of active galaxies (AGN) from low to high redshift. This gas, located in the black hole region of AGN, is thought to play an important role in AGN unification scenarios, in…
We have studied the correlation among X-ray absorption, optical reddening and nuclear dust morphology in Seyfert 2 galaxies. Two main conclusions emerge: a) the Balmer decrement and the amount of X-ray absorption are anticorrelated on a…
High resolution spectroscopic observations of Seyfert galaxies with Chandra and XMM-Newton allows us to study the detailed ionization and thermal structures of the X-ray absorbing/emitting material in the circumnuclear environment. The vast…
X-ray spectra of AGN are complex. X-ray absorption and emission features trace gas covering a wide range of column densities and ionization states. High resolution spectra show the absorbing gas to be outflowing, perhaps in the form of an…
The imminent launch of XRISM will usher in an era of high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy. For active galactic nuclei (AGN) this is an exciting epoch that is full of massive potential for uncovering the ins and outs of supermassive black hole…
We present observational evidences that dust in the circumnuclear region of AGNs has different properties than in the Galactic diffuse interstellar medium. By comparing the reddening of optical and infrared broad lines and the X-ray…
Unexpected in the AGN unified scheme, there exists a population of broad-line z~2 QSOs which have heavily absorbed X-ray spectra. These objects constitute 10% of the population at luminosities and redshifts characteristic of the main…
Various types of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are briefly discussed, with an emphasis on the theory of recent X-ray and $\gamma$-ray observations of the subclass, Seyfert 1 galaxies. The large radiation power from AGN is thought to…
Two families of models of dusty tori in AGNs (moderately thick and extended versus very thick and compact) are tested against available observations. The confrontation suggests that the former class better explains the IR broad-band spectra…
Dedicated searches generally find a decreasing fraction of obscured Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) with increasing AGN luminosity. This has often been interpreted as evidence for a decrease of the covering factor of the AGN torus with…
Context: A long-standing challenge of observational AGN research is to find type 2 quasars, the luminous analogues of Seyfert-2 galaxies. Aims: We search for luminous narrow-line type 2 AGN, characterise their properties, and compare them…
We use hard X-ray data for an "optimal" sample of Seyfert 2 galaxies to derive the distribution of the gaseous absorbing column densities among obscured active nuclei in the local Universe. Of all Seyfert 2 galaxies in the sample, 75% are…
We develop a new diagnostic method to classify galaxies into AGN hosts, star-forming galaxies, and absorption-dominated galaxies by combining the [O III]/Hbeta ratio with rest-frame U-B color. This can be used to robustly select AGNs in…
Several studies of nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) have shown that the soft X-ray emission presents a size and morphology that resembles that of the narrow-line region (NLR) traced by [O III]. Since the NLR is mainly constituted by gas…
We investigate the link between optical obscuration and X-ray absorption in active galactic nuclei (AGN) by combining X-ray spectroscopy from 4XMM-DR11 with SDSS DR16Q spectroscopy. Bayesian X-ray spectral fits were obtained within the…
We present the results of infrared 2.8-4.1 micron (L-band) spectroscopy of nearby infrared luminous galaxies with possible signatures of dust-obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in data at other wavelengths. The samples are chosen to…
From detailed spectral analysis of a large sample of low-redshift active galactic nuclei (AGNs) selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we demonstrate---statistically for the first time---that narrow optical Fe II emission lines, both…
The presence of an obscuring torus around the nucleus of Seyfert galaxies, as supposed in the popular unification scheme, can strongly modify the X--ray spectrum for both type 1 and 2 Seyfert galaxies. We find that if the torus is Compton…
The material surrounding accreting supermassive black holes connects the active galactic nucleus (AGN) with its host galaxy and, besides being responsible for feeding the black hole, provides important information on the feedback that…