Active galactic nuclei / / Volker Beckmann and Chris Shrader

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910813824903321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Weinheim, : Wiley-VCH; Chichester, : John Wiley [distributor], 2012
• ISBN: 3-527-66680-X; 3-527-66682-6; 3-527-66681-8
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: xxx, 351 p. : ill
• Collana: Physics textbook
• Classificazione: 443.6; 523.112
• Altri autori (Persone): ShraderChris R. <1955->
• Disciplina: 523.112
• Soggetti: Active galactic nuclei; Galaxies
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Includes bibliographical references (p. 315-346) and index
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Active Galactic Nuclei -- Contents -- Preface -- Abbreviations and Acronyms -- Astronomical and Physical Constants -- Color Plates -- 1 The Observational Picture of AGN -- 1.1 From Welteninseln to AGN -- 1.2 Broad Lines, Narrow Lines, and the Big Blue Bump -- 1.3 Jets and Other Outflows -- 1.4 X-ray Observations: Probing the Innermost Regions -- 1.5 Up, Up and Away: from Gamma-Rays toward the TeV Range -- 2 Radiative Processes -- 2.1 Scattering of Photons -- 2.1.1 Thomson Scattering -- 2.1.2 Compton Scattering -- 2.1.3 Inverse Compton Scattering -- 2.1.4 Thermal Bremsstrahlung -- 2.1.5 Pair Production -- 2.2 Synchrotron Emission -- 2.2.1 Synchrotron Emission of a Particle Plasma -- 2.2.2 Polarization -- 2.2.3 Faraday Rotation -- 2.2.4 Synchrotron Self-Absorption -- 2.2.5 Synchrotron Self-Compton -- 3 The Central Engine -- 3.1 The Black Hole -- 3.1.1 Approaching a Black Hole -- 3.1.2 Evidence for Black Holes in AGN -- 3.1.3 Gravitational Field Near a Black Hole: the Schwarzschild Metric -- 3.1.4 Rotating Black Holes: the Kerr Metric -- 3.2 Accretion Processes -- 3.2.1 Accretion Basics: Bondi Accretion and the Eddington Limit -- 3.2.2 Accretion and Viscous Dissipation in a Thin Disk -- 3.2.3 Accretion in Thick Disks -- 3.2.4 Advection-Dominated Accretion Flows ; -- 3.3 Absorption Close to the Black Hole -- 3.3.1 The Torus Model -- 3.3.2 Mass Loss in AGN -- 3.4 Photoionization Modeling -- 3.5 Narrow and Broad-Line Regions -- 3.6 Reverberation Mapping: Probing the Scale of the BLR -- 3.7 AGN Jets: Emission, Dynamics and Morphologies -- 3.7.1 Raising the Jet -- 3.7.2 Shocks and Knots -- 3.7.3 Superluminal Motion -- 4 AGN Types and Unification -- 4.1 Seyfert Galaxies -- 4.1.1 Optical Classification -- 4.1.2 HII Regions -- 4.1.3 X-ray Classification -- 4.1.4 Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies -- 4.2 Low-Luminosity AGN -- 4.3 Ultraluminous X-ray Sources.; 4.4 Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies - ULIRGs -- 4.5 Radio Galaxies -- 4.6 Quasars -- 4.6.1 Radio-Quiet Quasars -- 4.6.2 Radio-Loud Quasars -- 4.7 Blazars -- 4.8 Unification of AGN -- 4.8.1 Absorbed versus Unabsorbed AGN -- 4.8.2 Radio-Loud versus Radio-Quiet -- 4.8.3 Breaking the Unification -- 4.8.4 Grand Unification of Black Holes in the Universe -- 5 AGN through the Electromagnetic Spectrum -- 5.1 Radio: Probing the Central Engine -- 5.2 Infrared: Dust Near and Far -- 5.3 Optical: Where It All Began -- 5.4 UV: The Obscured Inner Disk -- 5.5 X-rays: Absorption, Reflection, and Relativistically Altered Line Profiles -- 5.5.1 AGN in the X-ray from 1965 to the 1990s -- 5.5.2 Today and Future X-ray Missions -- 5.5.3 The X-ray Spectrum of AGN -- 5.6 Gamma Rays: the Blazar-Dominated Sky -- 5.7 VHE: the Evolving Domain -- 5.7.1 The High-Energy End of the Spectrum -- 5.8 The Whole Picture: the Spectral Energy Distribution -- 5.8.1 SED of Blazars: a Whole Different Story -- 5.8.2 The Spectral Energy Distribution of Nonbeamed Sources -- 6 AGN Variability -- 6.1 Variability in Radio-Quiet AGN -- 6.2 Analysis Methods for Variability Studies -- 6.3 Variability of Radio-Loud AGN -- 6.4 Quasiperiodic Oscillations in AGN -- 6.5 Rapid Variability -- 7 Environment -- 7.1 Host Galaxies of AGN -- 7.1.1 Are There Naked Black Holes? -- 7.1.2 Morphological Classification of Galaxies -- 7.1.3 Host Galaxy and Black Hole Mass -- 7.1.4 AGN-Host Galaxy Feedback -- 7.2 The AGN-Starburst Connection -- 7.2.1 Estimating the Star-Formation Rate -- 7.2.2 AGN-Starburst Feedback -- 7.3 Merging -- 7.4 AGN in Clusters of Galaxies -- 8 Quasars and Cosmology -- 8.1 The Universe We Live in -- 8.1.1 Geometry and Distances -- 8.1.2 Measuring Fluxes -- 8.1.3 The Three-Component Universe -- 8.1.4 From the Big Bang to the Cosmic Microwave Background -- 8.1.5 The Dark Matter Universe.; 8.2 AGN and the Distribution of Matter on Large Scales -- 9 Formation, Evolution and the Ultimate Fate of AGN -- 9.1 The First AGN: How Did They Form? -- 9.2 Tools to Study AGN Evolution -- 9.2.1 The Number-Flux Relation -- 9.2.2 The V/Vmax Test -- 9.2.3 Luminosity Function -- 9.3 Luminosity Functions of AGN -- 9.4 AGN and the Cosmic X-ray Background -- 9.5 The Late Stages of an AGN's Life and Reignition SMBH -- 10 What We Don't Know (Yet) -- 10.1 The Central Engine -- 10.2 Environment, Interaction, and Feedback -- 10.3 Origin, Evolution, and Fate -- 10.4 Continuing the Quest -- References -- Index.
• Sommario/riassunto: This AGN textbook includes phenomena based on new results in the X-Ray domain from new telescopes such as Chandra and XMM Newton not mentioned in any other book. Furthermore, it considers also the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope with its revolutionary advances of unprecedented sensitivity, field of view and all-sky monitoring. Those and other new developments as well as simulations of AGN merging events and formations, enabled through latest super-computing capabilities. The book gives an overview on the current knowledge of the Active Galacitc Nuclei phenomenon. The spectral energy distribution will be discussed, pointing out what can be observed in different wavebands and with different physical models. Furthermore, the authors discuss the AGN with respect to its environment, host ; galaxy, feedback in galaxy clusters, etc. and finally the cosmological evolution of the AGN phenomenon.