Related papers: Unveiling obscured accretion
A complete census of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is a prerequisite for understanding the growth of supermassive black holes across cosmic time. A significant challenge toward this goal is the whereabouts of heavily obscured AGN that remain…
We present a measure of the hard (2-8 keV) X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of Active Galactic Nuclei up to z~5. At high redshifts, the wide area coverage of the Chandra Multiwavength Project is crucial to detect rare and luminous (Lx >…
The cores of active galactic nuclei (AGN) harbor some of the most extreme conditions of matter and energy in the Universe. One of the major goals of high-energy astrophysics is to probe these extreme environments in the vicinity of…
The high angular resolution and sensitivity of the Chandra X-ray Observatory has yielded large numbers of faint X-ray sources with measured redshifts in the soft (0.5-2 keV) and hard (2-8 keV) energy bands. Many of these sources show few…
At low Eddington ratio (mdot), two effects make it harder to detect AGN given some selection criteria. First, even with fixed accretion physics, AGN are diluted/less luminous relative to their hosts; the magnitude of this depends on host…
In this study, we use the SWIFT/BAT AGN sample, which has received extensive multiwavelength follow-up analysis as a result of the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS), to develop a diagnostic for nuclear obscuration by examining the…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN), particularly the most luminous AGN, are commonly assumed to be triggered through major mergers, however observational evidence for this scenario is mixed. To investigate any influence of galaxy mergers on AGN…
We investigate the cosmological evolution of the hard X-ray luminosity function (HXLF) of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the 2-10 keV luminosity range of 10^{41.5} - 10^{46.5} erg s^-1 as a function of redshift up to 3. From a combination…
We combine optical and X-ray data for eight low redshift ($z\sim 0.06$) poor groups of galaxies from the {\it XI}({\it XMM/IMACS}) Groups Project to study the AGN population in the group environment. Among $\sim 140$ group members, we…
We present new measurements of the evolution of the X-ray luminosity functions (XLFs) of unabsorbed and absorbed Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) out to z~5. We construct samples containing 2957 sources detected at hard (2-7 keV) X-ray…
In recent years deep X-ray and infrared surveys have provided an efficient way to find accreting supermassive black holes, otherwise known as active galactic nuclei (AGN), in the young universe. Such surveys can, unlike optical surveys,…
(Abridged) We study relationships between the SFR and the nuclear properties of X-ray selected AGNs out to z=2.5, using far-IR data in three extragalactic deep fields as part of the PACS Evolutionary Probe (PEP) program. Guided by studies…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are powered by the accretion of material onto a supermassive black hole (SMBH), and are among the most luminous objects in the Universe. However, the huge radiative power of most AGN cannot be seen directly, as…
For over 60 years, the scientific community has studied actively growing central super-massive black holes (active galactic nuclei -- AGN) but fundamental questions on their genesis remain unanswered. Numerical simulations and theoretical…
We study, by means of dedicated simulations of massive black hole build-up, the possibility to constraint the existence and nature of the AGN population at z>6 with available and planned X-ray and near infrared space telescopes. We find…
Over the last few years, the existence of mutual feedback effects between accreting supermassive black holes powering AGN and star formation in their host galaxies has become evident. This means that the formation and the evolution of AGN…
The fraction of AGN luminosity obscured by dust and re-emitted in the mid-IR is critical for understanding AGN evolution, unification, and parsec-scale AGN physics. For unobscured (Type-1) AGN, where we have a direct view of the accretion…
Heavily obscured accretion is believed to represent an important stage in the growth of supermassive black holes, and to play an important role in shaping the observed spectrum of the Cosmic X-ray Background (CXB). Hard X-ray (E$>$10 keV)…
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 synthesis model for the cosmic X-ray background (XRB) -based on the integrated emission of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs)- is complemented with new observational results. We adopt the most recent estimates of the AGN X-ray luminosity…