Related papers: The diffuse X-ray background
We present a short overview on the extragalactic background radiation from radio to X-rays, with an eye to the relation to galaxy formation and emphasizing on astrophysical backgrounds (as opposed to cosmological). As the radio background,…
Extensive programs of follow-up observations of hard X-ray selected sources have unambiguosly revealed that the sources of the X-ray background are characterized by an extremely large dispersion in their optical magnitude and spectroscopic…
While it is understood that the origin of the Cosmic X-ray Background (CXRB) can be explained in terms of a combination of obscured and unobscured AGN, the identity of these obscured AGN showing up in large numbers at faint fluxes remains…
The integrated emission of highly obscured AGN is expected to provide a major contribution to the X-ray energy density in the Universe: the X-ray background (XRB). The study of these objects is possible only at energies where the effects of…
We have incorporated the description of the X-ray properties of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) into a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, adopting physically motivated scaling laws for accretion triggered by galaxy encounters. Our model…
The Cosmic X-ray background carries the information of cosmic accretion onto super-massive black holes. The intensity at its peak can be used to constrain the integrated space density of highly obscured AGNs. Determining the shape and…
We present synthesis models of the X-ray background where the available X-ray observational constraints are used to derive information on the AGN population properties. We show the need for luminous X-ray absorbed AGNs, the QSO2s, in…
Most of the energy of the X-ray background is contributed by sources with a hard X-ray spectrum, harder than the spectrum observed in nearby type 1 AGNs. The hard background contributors are conventionally identified with type 2 AGNs,…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) produce a dominant fraction (~80%) of the Soft X-ray background (SXB) at photon energies 0.5<E<2 keV. If dust pervaded throughout the intergalactic medium, its scattering opacity would have produced diffuse…
We study the properties of the diffuse X-ray background by using the results of a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation of the concordance LambdaCDM model. The simulation follows gravitational and gas dynamics and includes a treatment of…
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…
Recent wide area hard X-ray and soft Gamma ray surveys have shown that the fraction of X-ray obscured AGNs in the local universe significantly decreases with intrinsic luminosity. In this letter we point out that two correction have to be…
Most Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the local Universe are obscured. In these obscured AGN an excess is usually observed in the soft X-rays below ~2 keV above the absorbed X-ray continuum. This spectral component is associated with the…
The origin of the hard (2-10 keV) X-ray background has remained mysterious for over 35 years. Most of the soft (0.5-2 keV) X-ray background has been resolved into discrete sources, which are primarily quasars; however, these sources do not…
We use simple energetic arguments to estimate the contribution of massive X-ray binaries and supernova remnants to the cosmic X-ray background (XRB) at energies in excess of 2 keV. Recent surveys have shown that AGN probably account for…
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…
Large-scale fluctuations of the X-ray background are investigated using the ROSAT All-Sky Survey. The autocorrelation function of the extragalactic background at 1 keV is determined at separations 0.1 - 40 deg. We detect a significant…
We use mid-infrared spectral decomposition to separate the 6micron mid-infrared AGN continuum from the host emission in the ISO low resolution spectra of 71 active galaxies and compare the results to observed and intrinsic 2-10keV hard…
We construct a new sample of 32 obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) selected from the Second XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalogue to investigate their multiwavelength properties in relation to the "scattering fraction", the ratio of…
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…