Related papers: Deep Sky Objects and the X-ray Background
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) unification, which implies a large number of obscured AGN, can explain the optical, infrared and X-ray content of deep multiwavelength surveys. Here, we show that the same model also successfully explains the…
The cosmic history of the growth of supermassive black holes in galactic centers parallels that of star-formation in the Universe. However, an important fraction of this growth occurs inconspicuously in obscured objects, where…
Most of the electromagnetic output of blazars (BL Lac objects and Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars) comes out in the gamma-ray band, making the Large Area Telescope [0.1-100 GeV] onboard the Fermi satellite and the Cherenkov telescopes crucial…
Observations of Galactic black hole sources are traditionally done in the classical X-ray range (2 -- 10 keV) due to sensitivity constraints. Most of the accretion power, however, is radiated above 10 keV and the study of these sources in…
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…
Dense gas in the centre of galaxies feeds massive black holes, but can also become a source of obscuration and limit our ability to find faint Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We use a high resolution cosmological radiative hydrodynamics…
The most heavily-obscured, luminous quasars might represent a specific phase of the evolution of actively accreting supermassive black holes and their host galaxies, possibly related to mergers. We investigated a sample of the most luminous…
We analyse very deep X-ray and mid-IR surveys in common areas of the Lockman Hole and the HDF North to study the sources of the X-ray background (XRB) and to test the standard obscured accretion paradigm. We detect with ISO a rich…
ROSAT deep and shallow surveys have provided an almost complete inventory of the constituents of the soft X-ray background which led to a population synthesis model for the whole X-ray background with interesting cosmological consequences.…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), Seyfert galaxies and quasars, are powered by luminous accretion and often accompanied by winds which are powerful enough to affect the AGN mass budget, and whose observational appearance bears an imprint of…
The co-evolution of host galaxies and the active black holes which reside in their centre is one of the most important topics in modern observational cosmology. Here we present a study of the properties of obscured Active Galactic Nuclei…
The spectrum of the hard X-ray background records the history of accretion processes integrated over the cosmic time. Several pieces of observational and theoretical evidence indicate that a significant fraction of the energy density is…
X-ray spectroscopy offers an opportunity to study the complex mixture of emitting and absorbing components in the circumnuclear regions of active galactic nuclei, and to learn about the accretion process that fuels AGN and the feedback of…
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…
Tidal forces close to massive black holes can violently disrupt stars that make a close approach. These extreme events are discovered via bright X-ray and optical/UV flares in galactic centers. Prior studies based on modeling decaying flux…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are complex phenomena. At the heart of an AGN is a relativistic accretion disk around a spinning supermassive black hole (SMBH) with an X-ray emitting corona and, sometimes, a relativistic jet. On larger scales,…
The centre of our Milky Way harbours the closest candidate for a supermassive black hole. The source is thought to be powered by radiatively inefficient accretion of gas from its environment. This form of accretion is a standard mode of…
Observing programs comprising multiple scientific objectives will enhance the productivity of NASA's next UV/Visible mission. Studying active galactic nuclei (AGN) is intrinsically important for understanding how black holes accrete matter,…
Two lines of evidence indicate that active galaxies, principally radio galaxies, have heated the diffuse hot gas in clusters. The first is the general need for additional heating to explain the steepness of the X-ray luminosity--temperature…
The highly energetic outflows from Active Galactic Nuclei detected in X-rays are one of the most powerful mechanisms by which the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) interacts with the host galaxy. The last two decades of high resolution…