The Chandra deep fields: Lifting the veil on distant active galactic nuclei and X-ray emitting galaxies

Abstract

The Chandra Deep Fields (CDFs), being a major thrust among extragalactic X-ray surveys and complemented effectively by multiwavelength observations, have critically contributed to our dramatically improved characterization of the 0.5-8 keV cosmic X-ray background sources, the vast majority of which are distant active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and starburst and normal galaxies. In this review, I highlight some recent key observational results, mostly from the CDFs, on the AGN demography, the interactions between AGNs and their host galaxies, the evolution of non-active galaxy X-ray emission, and the census of X-ray galaxy groups and clusters through cosmic time, after providing the necessary background information. I then conclude by summarizing some significant open questions and discussing future prospects for moving forward.

Active Galactic Nucleus Feedback in an Elliptical Galaxy with the Most Updated AGN Physics. I. Low Angular Momentum Case

“…In literature, many observational papers try to study the AGN feedback by investigating the correlation between star formation and AGN activity (see reviews by Harrison 2017 andXue 2017). From our simulation, we see that the effect of AGN feedback on star formation is very complicated.…”

A magnetar-powered X-ray transient as the aftermath of a binary neutron-star merger

“…The host galaxy of CDF-S XT2 is a dwarf galaxy (labeled as #1) with a secure spectroscopic redshift of 0.738 and a morphology of irregular disk, while the X-ray photons of XID 4Ms 256 are from an elliptical galaxy (labeled as #2) with a secure spectroscopic redshift of 0.740 and a morphology of pure bulge. These two galaxies likely belong to the same prominent large-scale structure at z ≈ 0.73 in the Extended-CDF-S 18,39…”

“…South survey (CDF-S), which consists of 102 individual Chandra/Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer imaging array (ACIS-I) observations spanning 16.4 yrs 17,18 , we performed a search for X-ray transient events and discovered two notable fast outbursts 14 , with one dubbed CDF-S XT1 and reported elsewhere 13 and CDF-S XT2 being the focus here. The We present the binned Chandra 0.5-7 keV light curves and spectra of CDF-S XT2 in Figure 1 for viewing purposes, and fit the unbinned light curves and spectra for physical constraints (see Methods).…”

The XMM-SERVS survey: new XMM–Newton point-source catalogue for the XMM-LSS field

“…3 of Brandt & Alexander 2015 and fig. 1 of Xue 2017). The original XMM-LSS survey was an ≈11 deg 2 field typically covered by XMM-Newton observations of ≈10 ks exposure time per pointing (Pacaud et al 2006;Pierre et al 2016).…”