The Cosmic History of Black Hole Growth from Deep Multiwavelength Surveys
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 met...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Hindawi Limited
2012-01-01
|
| Series: | Advances in Astronomy |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/516193 |
| Summary: | 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. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1687-7969 1687-7977 |