Journal ArticleDOI
Cosmological evolution of the hard X-ray active galactic nucleus luminosity function and the origin of the hard X-ray background
TLDR
In this article, the cosmological evolution of the hard X-ray luminosity function (HXLF) of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the 2-10 keV luminosity range of 1041.5-1046.5 ergs s-1 was investigated.Abstract:
We investigate the cosmological evolution of the hard X-ray luminosity function (HXLF) of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the 2-10 keV luminosity range of 1041.5-1046.5 ergs s-1 as a function of redshift up to 3. From a combination of surveys conducted at photon energies above 2 keV with HEAO 1, ASCA, and Chandra, we construct a highly complete (>96%) sample consisting of 247 AGNs over the wide flux range of 10-10 to 3.8 × 10-15 ergs cm-2 s-1 (2-10 keV). For our purpose, we develop an extensive method of calculating the intrinsic (before absorption) HXLF and the absorption (NH) function. This utilizes the maximum likelihood method, fully correcting for observational biases with consideration of the X-ray spectrum of each source. We find that (1) the fraction of X-ray absorbed AGNs decreases with the intrinsic luminosity and (2) the evolution of the HXLF of all AGNs (including both type I and type II AGNs) is best described with a luminosity-dependent density evolution (LDDE) where the cutoff redshift increases with the luminosity. Our results directly constrain the evolution of AGNs that produce a major part of the hard X-ray background, thus solving its origin quantitatively. A combination of the HXLF and the NH function enables us to construct a purely observation-based population synthesis model. We present basic consequences of this model and discuss the contribution of Compton-thick AGNs to the rest of the hard X-ray background.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Observational Evidence of Active Galactic Nuclei Feedback
TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that the radiative or quasar mode of feedback can account for the observed proportionality between the central black hole and the host galaxy mass, which can lead to ejection or heating of the gas.
Journal ArticleDOI
A Unified, Merger-driven Model of the Origin of Starbursts, Quasars, the Cosmic X-Ray Background, Supermassive Black Holes, and Galaxy Spheroids
Philip F. Hopkins,Lars Hernquist,Thomas J. Cox,Tiziana Di Matteo,Brant Robertson,Volker Springel +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, an evolutionary model for starbursts, quasars, and spheroidal galaxies is presented, in which mergers between gas-rich galaxies drive nuclear inflows of gas, producing starburst and feeding the buried growth of supermassive black holes (BHs) until feedback expels gas and renders a briefly visible optical quasar.
Journal ArticleDOI
THE NUCLEAR SPECTROSCOPIC TELESCOPE ARRAY (NuSTAR) HIGH-ENERGY X-RAY MISSION
Fiona A. Harrison,William W. Craig,William W. Craig,Finn Erland Christensen,Charles J. Hailey,William W. Zhang,Steven E. Boggs,Daniel Stern,W. Rick Cook,Karl Forster,Paolo Giommi,Brian W. Grefenstette,Yunjin Kim,Takao Kitaguchi,Jason E. Koglin,Kristin K. Madsen,Peter H. Mao,Hiromasa Miyasaka,Kaya Mori,M. Perri,Michael J. Pivovaroff,Simonetta Puccetti,Vikram Rana,Niels Jørgen Stenfeldt Westergaard,J. L. Willis,Andreas Zoglauer,Hongjun An,Matteo Bachetti,Matteo Bachetti,Nicolas M. Barrière,Eric C. Bellm,Varun Bhalerao,Varun Bhalerao,Nicolai Brejnholt,Felix Fuerst,Carl Christian Liebe,Craig B. Markwardt,Melania Nynka,Julia Vogel,Dominic J. Walton,Daniel R. Wik,David M. Alexander,L. R. Cominsky,Ann Hornschemeier,Allan Hornstrup,Victoria M. Kaspi,Greg Madejski,Giorgio Matt,S. Molendi,David M. Smith,John A. Tomsick,Marco Ajello,David R. Ballantyne,Mislav Baloković,Didier Barret,Didier Barret,Franz E. Bauer,Roger Blandford,W. Niel Brandt,Laura Brenneman,James Chiang,Deepto Chakrabarty,Jérôme Chenevez,Andrea Comastri,Francois Dufour,Martin Elvis,Andrew C. Fabian,Duncan Farrah,Chris L. Fryer,Eric V. Gotthelf,Jonathan E. Grindlay,D. J. Helfand,Roman Krivonos,David L. Meier,Jon M. Miller,Lorenzo Natalucci,Patrick Ogle,Eran O. Ofek,Andrew Ptak,Stephen P. Reynolds,Jane R. Rigby,Gianpiero Tagliaferri,Stephen E. Thorsett,Ezequiel Treister,C. Megan Urry +84 more
TL;DR: The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) as discussed by the authors is the first focusing high-energy X-ray telescope in orbit, which operates in the band from 3 to 79 keV.
Journal ArticleDOI
Local supermassive black holes, relics of active galactic nuclei and the X-ray background
Alessandro Marconi,Guido Risaliti,Guido Risaliti,Roberto Gilli,L. K. Hunt,Roberto Maiolino,M. Salvati +6 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors quantify the importance of mass accretion during AGN phases in the growth of supermassive black holes (BH) by comparing the mass function of black holes in the local universe with that expected from AGN relics, which are black holes grown entirely with mass accumulation during AGNs phases.
Journal ArticleDOI
A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. I. Galaxy Mergers and Quasar Activity
TL;DR: In this paper, a model for the cosmological role of mergers in the evolution of starbursts, quasars, and spheroidal galaxies is proposed.
References
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The Demography of Massive Dark Objects in Galaxy Centres
John Magorrian,Scott Tremaine,Douglas O. Richstone,Ralf Bender,Gary Bower,Alan Dressler,S. M. Faber,Karl Gebhardt,Richard E. Green,Carl J. Grillmair,John Kormendy,Tod R. Lauer +11 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors constructed dynamical models for a sample of 36 nearby galaxies with Hubble Space Telescope photometry and ground-based kinematics, assuming that each galaxy is axisymmetric, with a two-integral distribution function, arbitrary inclination angle, a position-independent stellar mass-to-light ratio Upsilon, and a central massive dark object of arbitrary mass M_bh.
Journal ArticleDOI
Confidence limits for small numbers of events in astrophysical data
TL;DR: The calculation of limits for small numbers of astronomical counts is based on standard equations derived from Poisson and binomial statistics; although the equations are straightforward, their direct use is cumbersome and involves both table-interpolations and several mathematical operations as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Composite Quasar Spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Daniel E. Vanden Berk,Gordon T. Richards,Amanda E. Bauer,Michael A. Strauss,Donald P. Schneider,Timothy M. Heckman,Donald G. York,Patrick B. Hall,Patrick B. Hall,Xiaohui Fan,Gillian R. Knapp,Scott F. Anderson,James Annis,Neta A. Bahcall,Mariangela Bernardi,John W. Briggs,Jon Brinkmann,Robert J. Brunner,Scott Burles,Larry N. Carey,Francisco J. Castander,Francisco J. Castander,A. J. Connolly,James H. Crocker,István Csabai,István Csabai,Mamoru Doi,Douglas P. Finkbeiner,Scott D. Friedman,Joshua A. Frieman,Joshua A. Frieman,Masataka Fukugita,James E. Gunn,Gregory S. Hennessy,Željko Ivezić,Stephen B. H. Kent,Stephen B. H. Kent,Peter Z. Kunszt,D. Q. Lamb,R. French Leger,Dan Long,Jon Loveday,Robert H. Lupton,Avery Meiksin,Aronne Merelli,Aronne Merelli,Jeffrey A. Munn,Heidi Jo Newberg,M. Newcomb,Robert C. Nichol,Russell Owen,Jeffrey R. Pier,Adrian Pope,Adrian Pope,Constance M. Rockosi,David J. Schlegel,Walter A. Siegmund,Stephen A. Smee,Stephen A. Smee,Yehuda Snir,Chris Stoughton,Christopher W. Stubbs,Mark SubbaRao,Alexander S. Szalay,Gyula P. Szokoly,Christy Tremonti,Alan Uomoto,Patrick Waddell,Brian Yanny,Wei Zheng +69 more
TL;DR: In this article, a variety of composite quasar spectra using a homogeneous data set of over 2200 spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) was created, and the median composite covers a restwavelength range from 800 to 8555 A and reaches a peak signal-to-noise ratio of over 300 per 1 A resolution element in the rest frame.