The Accretion and Obscured Growth of Supermassive Black Holes

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxiv

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2. Introduction

   • Peter Boorman

   Pages 1-43

3. IC3639—A New Bona Fide Compton-Thick AGN Unveiled by NuSTAR

   • Peter Boorman

   Pages 45-80

4. An Iwasawa–Taniguchi Effect for Compton-Thick Active Galactic Nuclei

   • Peter Boorman

   Pages 81-121

5. The NuSTAR Local AGN \(N_{\mathrm {H}}\) Distribution Survey: Prospects for Mitigating Obscuration Bias in Local AGN Selection

   • Peter Boorman

   Pages 123-141

6. The NuLANDS \(N_H\) Distribution

   • Peter Boorman

   Pages 143-179

7. Summary, Conclusions and Outlook

   • Peter Boorman

   Pages 181-189

8. Back Matter

   Pages 191-311

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This thesis describes the application of state-of-the-art high-energy X-ray studies to the astronomical quest for understanding obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN). These AGN are supermassive black holes growing by accretion of matter located in the nuclei of galaxies. The material that feeds these black holes also obscures them from view, rendering them challenging to study. It is possible to study them by effectively 'X-raying' galactic nuclei to peer through these obscuring veils.
 
Beginning with the proof-of-concept application of novel X-ray Monte Carlo codes to the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray (NuSTAR) spectrum of a known heavily obscured AGN, the thesis establishes the relevant parameters that characterise the AGN spectrum and central black hole growth rate. Next the largest sample of known heavily obscured AGN is compiled, finding the strength of a prominent iron spectral feature to weaken with AGN power. This is puzzling, and suggeststhat there may be more hidden AGN than previously thought. Finally by combining an all-sky infrared selection with NuSTAR follow-up, new heavily obscured AGN are identified. Obscuration emits infrared radiation, meaning that the infrared-selected AGN catalogue should be representative of the underlying AGN population. The absence of such representative catalogues has continually plagued cosmological studies, and the resultant obscured AGN fraction will be strongly constraining for AGN models. 

• Studying Active Galactic Nuclei
• high energy X-rays in astronomy
• Obscuration of galactic nuclei
• Supermassive Black Holes
• Compton-thick
• NuSTAR telecope array
• Iron K-alpha
• X-ray Monte Carlo code

• Czech Academy of Sciences, Astronomical Institute, Prague, Czech Republic

  Peter Boorman

Peter Boorman graduated with a 1st class honours degree in physics from the University of Southampton in 2015, finishing top of his cohort. His work during his PhD led him to a NASA press release, 2 refereed first-author papers, and 10 other co-authored papers. He was selected in 2019 for the annual Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting, representing the University of Southampton in a global gathering of Nobel laureates and the world's top young researchers. He now works at the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and will soon start a fellowship at the University of Kyoto with a world-leading X-ray astronomy group.

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