Related papers: The Quest for a Complete Census of AGN Activity
Current X-ray surveys have proved to be essential tools in order to identify and study AGNs across cosmic time. However, there is evidence that the most heavily obscured AGNs are largely missing even in the deepest surveys. The search for…
For nearly seven decades astronomers have been studying active galaxies, that is to say galaxies with actively accreting central supermassive black holes, AGN. A small fraction of these are characterized by luminous, powerful radio…
We use data from the All Wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey to construct stacked X-ray maps of optically bright active galaxies (AGN) and an associated control sample of galaxies at high redshift (z less than 0.6). From…
Highly obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) are common in nearby galaxies, but are difficult to observe beyond the local Universe, where they are expected to significantly contribute to the black hole accretion rate density. Furthermore,…
The application of multi-wavelength selection techniques is crucial for discovering a complete and unbiased set of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). Here, we select a sample of 72 AGN candidates in the Extended Groth Strip (EGS) using deep…
In this work, we study the AGN radio detection effectiveness in the major deep extragalactic surveys, considering different AGN obscuration levels, redshift, and AGN bolometric luminosities. We particularly focus on comparing their radio…
A global understanding of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and their host galaxies hinges on completing a census of AGN activity without selection biases down to the low-luminosity regime. Toward that goal, we identify AGN within faint radio…
Recent X-ray surveys have provided a large number of high-luminosity, obscured Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), the so-called Type 2 quasars. Despite the large amount of multi-wavelength supporting data, the main parameters related to the…
X-ray surveys provide the most efficient means for the detection of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). However, they face difficulties in detecting the most heavily obscured Compton-thick AGN. The BAT detector on board the Gehrels/Swift mission,…
Population synthesis models of actively accreting super-massive black holes (or active galactic nuclei -- AGN) predict a large fraction that must grow behind dense, obscuring screens of gas and dust. Deep X-ray surveys are thought to have…
I present a review of X-ray and mid-IR surveys for Compton-thick Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). These are the most highly obscured sources having hydrogen column densities >1.5x10^24 cm-2. Key surveys in the local Universe are presented…
We quantify the presence of Active Galactic nuclei (AGN) in a mass-complete (M_* >5e10 M_sun) sample of 123 star-forming and quiescent galaxies at 1.5 < z < 2.5, using X-ray data from the 4 Ms Chandra Deep Field-South (CDF-S) survey.…
Identifying Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) through their X-ray emission is efficient, but necessarily biased against X-ray-faint objects. We aim to characterize this bias by comparing X-ray-selected AGNs to the ones identified through…
Hard X-ray ($\geq 10$ keV) observations of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) can shed light on some of the most obscured episodes of accretion onto supermassive black holes. The 70-month Swift/BAT all-sky survey, which probes the 14-195 keV…
We report the discovery using Spitzers high resolution spectrograph of 7 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in a sample of 32 late-type galaxies that show no definitive signatures of AGN in their optical spectra. Our observations suggest that the…
We use a combination of the XMM-Newton serendipitous X-ray survey with the optical SDSS, and the infrared WISE all-sky survey in order to check the efficiency of the low X-ray to infrared luminosity selection method in finding heavily…
(abridged) We identify a numerically significant population of heavily obscured AGNs at z~0.5-1 in the Chandra Deep Field-South (CDF-S) and Extended Chandra Deep Field-South by selecting 242 X-ray undetected objects with infrared-based star…
We present an estimate of the space density of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) at z=3. Combining deep X-ray data with Lyman Break Galaxy (LBG) colour-selection in the rest-frame UV makes for highly efficient identification of AGN in a narrow…
Hard X-ray surveys are an important tool for the study of active galactic nuclei (AGN): they provide almost an unbiased view of absorption in the extragalactic population, allow the study of spectral features such as reflection and high…
Current X-ray observatories, archival X-ray data, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) represent a powerful combination for addressing key questions about active galactic nuclei (AGN). We describe a few selected issues at the forefront…