scholarly journals Obscured quasars at redshift z ~ 2

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (S304) ◽  
pp. 199-199
Author(s):  
Agnese Del Moro ◽  
D. Alexander ◽  
F. Bauer ◽  
E. Daddi ◽  
M. Pannella ◽  
...  

AbstractCompleting the census of AGN in the Universe is the key to understanding the cosmic evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBH) and galaxies, and to resolving the spectrum of the X-ray background (XRB). However, a large population of AGN, especially the heavily obscured, Compton-thick AGN, are still missing from even the deepest X-ray surveys. The infrared spectra energy distribution (SED) of distant star-forming galaxies can reveal the presence of bright AGN activity. Using some of the deepest infrared, X-ray and radio data available in the GOODS fields, we identify a population of infrared bright quasars at redshift z ~ 2, which are often missed in the X-ray band. Amongst these sources the number of obscured and heavily-obscured quasars is much higher than those previously found in several X-ray and optical selected samples. A unique view on these heavily-obscured quasars is now given at high energies by NuSTAR. I will present the first NuSTAR detection of a heavily obscured quasar at z 2. This source is a potential archetype of the heavily-obscured high-z AGN in which most of the black hole growth is happening, that can explain the mysterious missing fraction of the XRB.

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (S304) ◽  
pp. 188-194
Author(s):  
Ezequiel Treister ◽  
Claudia M. Urry ◽  
Kevin Schawinski ◽  
Brooke D. Simmons ◽  
Priyamvada Natarajan ◽  
...  

AbstractIn order to fully understand galaxy formation we need to know when in the cosmic history are supermassive black holes (SMBHs) growing more intensively, in what type of galaxies this growth is happening and what fraction of these sources are invisible at most wavelengths due to obscuration. Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) population synthesis models that can explain the spectral shape and intensity of the cosmic X-ray background (CXRB) indicate that most of the SMBH growth occurs in moderate-luminosity (LX~ 1044 erg/s) sources (Seyfert-type AGN), at z~ 0.5−1 and in heavily obscured but Compton-thin, NH~ 1023cm−2, systems. However, this is not the complete history, as a large fraction of black hole growth does not emit significantly in X-rays either due to obscuration, intrinsic low luminosities or large distances. The integrated intensity at high energies indicates that a significant fraction of the total black hole growth, 22%, occurs in heavily-obscured systems that are not individually detected in even the deepest X-ray observations. We further investigate the AGN triggering mechanism as a function of bolometric luminosity, finding evidence for a strong connection between significant black hole growth events and major galaxy mergers from z~ 0 to z~ 3, while less spectacular but longer accretion episodes are most likely due to other (stochastic) processes. AGN activity triggered by major galaxies is responsible for ~60% of the total black hole growth. Finally, we constrain the total accreted mass density in supermassive black holes at z > 6, inferred via the upper limit derived from the integrated X-ray emission from a sample of photometrically selected galaxy candidates. We estimate an accreted mass density <1000 M⊙Mpc−3 at z~ 6, significantly lower than the previous predictions from some existing models of early black hole growth and earlier prior observations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (1) ◽  
pp. 1006-1022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Ricarte ◽  
Fabio Pacucci ◽  
Nico Cappelluti ◽  
Priyamvada Natarajan

ABSTRACT There exist hitherto unexplained fluctuations in the cosmic infrared background on arcminute scales and larger. These have been shown to cross-correlate with the cosmic X-ray background, leading several authors to attribute the excess to a high-redshift growing black hole population. In order to investigate potential sources that could explain this excess, in this paper, we develop a new framework to compute the power spectrum of undetected sources that do not have constant flux as a function of halo mass. In this formulation, we combine a semi-analytic model for black hole growth and their simulated spectra from hydrodynamical simulations. Revisiting the possible contribution of a high-redshift black hole population, we find that too much black hole growth is required at early epochs for z &gt; 6 accretion to explain these fluctuations. Examining a population of accreting black holes at more moderate redshifts, z ∼ 2–3, we find that such models produce a poor fit to the observed fluctuations while simultaneously overproducing the local black hole mass density. Additionally, we rule out the hypothesis of a missing Galactic foreground of warm dust that produces coherent fluctuations in the X-ray via reflection of Galactic X-ray binary emission. Although we firmly rule out accreting massive black holes as the source of these missing fluctuations, additional studies will be required to determine their origin.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezequiel Treister ◽  
C. Megan Urry

Significant progress has been made in the last few years on understanding how supermassive black holes form and grow. In this paper, we begin by reviewing the spectral signatures of active galactic nuclei (AGN) ranging from radio to hard X-ray wavelengths. We then describe the most commonly used methods to find these sources, including optical/UV, radio, infrared, and X-ray emission, and optical emission lines. We then describe the main observational properties of the obscured and unobscured AGN population. Finally, we summarize the cosmic history of black hole accretion, that is, when in the history of the universe supermassive black holes were getting most of their mass. We finish with a summary of open questions and a description of planned and future observatories that are going to help answer them.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (S312) ◽  
pp. 39-42
Author(s):  
Weimin Yuan ◽  
Zhu Liu ◽  
Youjun Lu ◽  
Xin-Lin Zhou

AbstractWhile a broad line of the Fe Kα emission is commonly found in the X-ray spectra of typical Seyfert galaxies, the situation is unclear in the case of Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s)—an extreme subset which are generally thought to harbor less massive black holes with higher accretion rates. We report results of our study of the assemble property of the Fe K line in NLS1s by stacking the X-ray spectra of a large sample of 51 NLS1s observed with XMM-Newton. We find in the stacked X-ray spectra a prominent, broad emission feature over 4–7 keV, which is characteristic of the broad Fe Kα line. Our results suggest that a relativistic broad Fe line may in fact be common in NLS1s. The line profile is used to study the average spin of the black holes in the sample. We find, for the first time, that their black holes are constrained to be likely spinning at averagely low or moderate rates as a population. The implications of the results are discussed in the context of the black hole growth in NLS1 galaxies.


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (S304) ◽  
pp. 112-118
Author(s):  
N. A. Levenson

AbstractCompton thick active galactic nuclei (AGN), which are obscured by column density NH > 1.5 × 104 cm−2, can be difficult to identify. They are certainly cosmically significant, both in producing the observed cosmic X-ray background, and in providing a location where black hole growth is hidden from view. Here I review some recent results from surveys that provide indications of Compton thick AGN, considering X-ray, radio, and infrared selection techniques. I also offer a caution against using mid-infrared silicate features to measure line-of-sight obscuration to active galactic nuclei. Instead, these features better indicate the geometric distribution of dust that the central engine heats. I conclude that the outstanding problem of Compton thick AGN is not the cases where the obscuration is directly associated with the environment of the active nucleus itself, even in the most obscured examples. Instead, we still risk missing the completely buried AGN, which are obscured by large amounts of gas and dust over large solid angles. The solution to finding Compton thick AGN may be to begin the search based on infrared emission and star formation, and then select for nuclear activity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (4) ◽  
pp. 5225-5230
Author(s):  
W Ishibashi

ABSTRACT Growing observational evidence confirms the existence of massive black holes ($M_{\rm BH} \sim 10^9 \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$), accreting at rates close to the Eddington limit, at very high redshifts ($z \gtrsim 6\!-\!7$) in the early Universe. Recent observations indicate that the host galaxies of the first quasars are chemically evolved systems, containing unexpectedly large amounts of dust. Such a combination of high luminosities and large dust content should form favourable physical conditions for radiative dusty feedback. We explore the impact of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback, driven by radiation pressure on dust, on the early growth of massive black holes. Assuming Eddington-limited exponential black hole growth, we find that the dynamics and energetics of the radiation pressure-driven outflows also follow exponential trends at late times. We obtain modest outflow energetics (with momentum flux $\dot{p} \lesssim L/c$ and kinetic power $\dot{E}_{\rm k} \lesssim 10^{-3} L$), comparable with available observations of quasar-driven outflows at very high redshifts, but significantly lower than typically observed in local quasars and predicted by wind energy-driven models. AGN radiative dusty feedback may thus play an important role in powering galactic outflows in the first quasars in the early Universe.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (S346) ◽  
pp. 332-336
Author(s):  
M. Celeste Artale ◽  
Nicola Giacobbo ◽  
Michela Mapelli ◽  
Paolo Esposito

AbstractThe high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) provide an exciting framework to investigate the evolution of massive stars and the processes behind binary evolution. HMXBs have shown to be good tracers of recent star formation in galaxies and might be important feedback sources at early stages of the Universe. Furthermore, HMXBs are likely the progenitors of gravitational wave sources (BH–BH or BH–NS binaries that may merge producing gravitational waves). In this work, we investigate the nature and properties of HMXB population in star-forming galaxies. We combine the results from the population synthesis model MOBSE (Giacobbo & Mapelli 2018a) together with galaxy catalogs from EAGLE simulation (Schaye et al. 2015). Therefore, this method describes the HMXBs within their host galaxies in a self-consistent way. We compute the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of HMXBs in star-forming galaxies, showing that this methodology matches the main features of the observed XLF.


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (S304) ◽  
pp. 43-43
Author(s):  
Amy Barger

AbstractObscured AGN may correspond to a substantial fraction of the supermassive black hole growth rate. I will present new surveys with the SCUBA-2 instrument on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope of the Chandra Deep Fields and discuss whether we can distinguish obscured AGN in hard X-ray and radio selected samples using submillimeter observations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 458 (2) ◽  
pp. 2012-2023 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. V. Vasudevan ◽  
A. C. Fabian ◽  
C. S. Reynolds ◽  
J. Aird ◽  
T. Dauser ◽  
...  

1999 ◽  
Vol 183 ◽  
pp. 200-209
Author(s):  
G. Hasinger

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. According to this model the X-ray background is the “echo” of mass accretion onto supermassive black holes, integrated over cosmic time. A new determination of the soft X-ray luminosity function of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is consistent with pure density evolution, and the comoving volume density of AGN at redshift 2–3 approaches that of local normal galaxies. This indicates that many larger galaxies contain black holes and it is likely that the bulk of the black holes was produced before most of the stars in the universe. However, only X-ray surveys in the harder energy bands, where the maximum of the energy density of the X-ray background resides, will provide the acid test of this picture.


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