The Accretion and Obscured Growth of

Supermassive Black Holes: First

Constraints on the Local Heavily
Obscured AGN Fraction with NuSTAR
Peter Boorman
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Springer Theses
Recognizing Outstanding Ph.D. Research

Peter Boorman

The Accretion and

Obscured Growth
of Supermassive
Black Holes
First Constraints on the Local Heavily
Obscured AGN Fraction with NuSTAR
Springer Theses

Recognizing Outstanding Ph.D. Research

Aims and Scope

The series “Springer Theses” brings together a selection of the very best Ph.D.
theses from around the world and across the physical sciences. Nominated and
endorsed by two recognized specialists, each published volume has been selected
for its scientific excellence and the high impact of its contents for the pertinent field
of research. For greater accessibility to non-specialists, the published versions
include an extended introduction, as well as a foreword by the student’s supervisor
explaining the special relevance of the work for the field. As a whole, the series will
provide a valuable resource both for newcomers to the research fields described,
and for other scientists seeking detailed background information on special
questions. Finally, it provides an accredited documentation of the valuable
contributions made by today’s younger generation of scientists.

Theses are accepted into the series by invited nomination only

and must fulfill all of the following criteria
• They must be written in good English.
• The topic should fall within the confines of Chemistry, Physics, Earth Sciences,
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cance of its content.
• The theses should have a clearly defined structure including an introduction
accessible to scientists not expert in that particular field.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8790

Peter Boorman

The Accretion and Obscured

Growth of Supermassive
Black Holes
First Constraints on the Local Heavily
Obscured AGN Fraction with NuSTAR
Doctoral Thesis accepted by
University of Southampton, Southampton,
United Kingdom

123
Author Supervisor
Dr. Peter Boorman Dr. Poshak Gandhi
Czech Academy of Sciences School of Physics and Astronomy
Astronomical Institute Faculty of Physical Sciences
Prague, Czech Republic and Engineering
University of Southampton
Southampton, UK

ISSN 2190-5053 ISSN 2190-5061 (electronic)

Springer Theses
ISBN 978-3-030-60360-1 ISBN 978-3-030-60361-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60361-8
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
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This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
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the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
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This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Thunderclouds’ Enlightening, very very
frightening.
Adapted from Freddie Mercury
Dedicated to my late Grandparents, Patricia
Eula Potton and Reginald William Henry
Potton, who were always there to remind me
—“You’ve got a tongue in your head... So use
it!”
If ever there is tomorrow
when we’re not together...
there is something you must always
remember
You are braver than you believe, stronger
than you seem and smarter than you think
But the most important thing is,
even if we’re apart...
I’ll always be with you.
—A. A. Milne
Supervisor’s Foreword

Technology and human ingenuity drive discovery. We are living in a golden age of
discovery in astronomy, enabled by novel technologies. The past decade, in par-
ticular, has seen black hole research grow leaps and bounds, whether it be the
discovery of gravitational waves by LIGO or the first direct image of a black hole
by the EHT Collaboration. We are at an important societal tipping point in terms of
our growing understanding and acceptance of the reality of black holes.
It is becoming clear that the lives and fates of supermassive black holes are
bound with the galaxies in which they live. But this remains somewhat counter-
intuitive, given the disparate size scales involved: a black hole is to a galaxy, what a
pea is to the Earth, in terms of relative size scales. A lot more work is still required
to comprehend how supermassive black holes grow and evolve.
Peter Boorman joined my research group in 2015, just after the start of full
regular operations of NASA’s new space X-ray mission, NuSTAR . This is the first
space telescope capable of focusing high energy X-rays. Black holes grow by the
process of ‘accretion’ of interstellar gas and dust that spirals in from galactic scales.
Accretion results in emission of copious amounts of broadband radiation which can,
in principle, be used to study black hole growth. But the same interstellar matter
that feeds the black hole often also enshrouds it from direct view. Hence, the need
to use X-rays in order to peer through these shrouds, just like we ‘X-ray’ the bones
inside our body. The capability of focusing X-rays allows NuSTAR to create
high-quality images of distant supermassive black holes. It is also able to split the
X-rays to create a spectrum of their constituent energies. Together, the imaging
positional quality and the energy sensitivity are the key novel advances that make
NuSTAR unique.
Peter took on with gusto the task of modelling the growth rates of supermassive
black holes (a.k.a. active galactic nuclei, or AGN) in nearby galaxies. Within the
first few months, he got to grips with not only the technical details of the NuSTAR
observatory, but also state-of-the-art radiative transfer codes that model the spec-
trum of heavily shrouded AGN. It is believed that most AGN in the cosmos are
likely obscured from direct view. Exactly how abundant these obscured AGN are
remaining contentious, in particular those are heavily obscured. Peter’s thesis is

ix
x Supervisor’s Foreword

focused on quantifying this abundance in the nearby universe (within a few hundred
million light-years from Earth). Once we understand our local galactic neigh-
bourhood well, this will set the benchmark for evolutionary studies to earlier cosmic
epochs.
Peter’s work showed that some of these obscured AGN must be growing very
rapidly, indeed. These black holes can pump out the power equivalent of 10 billion
Suns, yet remain largely hidden from view unless viewed in high energy X-rays.
Without NuSTAR , we would thus drastically underestimate the growth rates of
some of the AGN. Peter led the largest survey of our local cosmic neighbourhood
using a selection strategy that attempts to circumvent the biases caused by the
obscuring material. He presents herein one of the most accurate estimates of the
abundance of AGN as a function of how obscured they are. I have no doubt that this
work will continue to inform models of supermassive black hole growth for years to
come.
Peter’s work also challenges some long-held preconceptions on the appearance
of these heavily obscured AGN. X-rays can ‘reflect’ off the enshrouding matter and
imprint a signature of this interaction in the spectrum that we observe. In particular,
interstellar Iron atoms tend to produce a strong characteristic signature when such
reflection occurs. Peter collated the largest robust sample of obscured AGN, and
found that, surprisingly, the Iron emission signature tends to be weaker than
expected as the AGN power ramps up. The consequence of this discovery is that it
will likely prove harder to uncover the most obscured AGN. In other words, there
may be even more such hidden supermassive black holes than we currently suspect.
For the interested non-expert, I suggest a thorough read of the Introduction
chapter focusing on an up-to-date account of our understanding of AGN and the
obscured growth of black holes. For those who wish to get to know the nitty-gritty
of X-ray telescopes and modelling of X-ray spectra, the second half of the
Introduction chapter will provide the relevant groundwork, and Chap. 2 shows a
detailed working example on one nearby AGN. Chapter 3 presents the surprising
discovery of the weak Iron reflection features and dependence on AGN power.
Chapters 4 and 5 lay out the unbiased selection strategy and the abundances of
obscured AGN. For the experts, long tables and Appendices should contain all the
relevant details of the samples used.
Having the opportunity to mentor motivated young researchers is the best part of
my job as a professional scientist. I count myself fortunate to have supervised Dr.
Peter Boorman in this exceptional thesis work.

Southampton, UK Dr. Poshak Gandhi

May 2020 Associate Professor
Abstract

It is widely accepted that black holes at the centres of galaxies grow to become
supermassive through the process of accretion, though the exact mechanism by
which black holes evolve across cosmic time is still poorly understood. Sensitive
X-ray observations have enabled studies of the closest regions to growing super-
massive black holes (aka Active Galactic Nuclei—AGN), and have revealed the
majority are obscured by gas. Unfortunately though, the most obscured AGN are
typically too enshrouded in thick gas to be detected in wide-field X-ray surveys.
This has led to estimates of the fraction of heavily obscured AGN relative to the
total population varying drastically between  20–70%, yet a determination of this
fraction is essential to understand the evolution and demographics of all super-
massive black holes.
The first study presented in this thesis creates a basis for robustly probing
extreme obscuration of accreting supermassive black holes. This was done with
sensitive high-energy X-ray observations from the NASA NuSTAR observatory, in
combination with broadband optical and infrared multi-wavelength diagnostics.
The next step was to consider what coeval properties AGN obscuration has with
the central supermassive black hole, and whether or not extreme obscuration can in
some way be regulated by the central engine. This project was able to provide
tentative evidence of an anti-correlation between intrinsic AGN luminosity and
obscuration reprocessing, (the Compton-thick Iwasawa-Taniguchi effect), which
potentially holds implications for future large surveys of AGN if the effect is not
taken into account.
There exists a known bias against the most obscured AGN, even in our very
most local volume. However, an understanding of the distribution of AGN
obscuration is essential for constraining the cosmic origin of the Cosmic X-ray
Background. For this reason, the final chapter presents the NuSTAR Local AGN N H
Distribution Survey (NuLANDS )—one of the largest legacy surveys of AGN
currently underway with the X-ray space telescopes NuSTAR, XMM-Newton and
Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (>4 million seconds of total exposure), which is
aimed at finding the elusive Compton-thick AGN population. Via multiwavelength
techniques, NuLANDS is targeting AGN representatively of the underlying

xi
xii Abstract

population, and has thus already led to the discovery and classification of multiple
heavily obscured AGN previously hidden at X-ray wavelengths. The initial results
from the survey indicate that  30% of all AGN in the local Universe are heavily
obscured, and that high-energy X-ray selection alone preferentially selects
less-obscured AGN. As such, NuLANDS marks a major step in completing the
local census of supermassive black hole growth, and will pave the way in quan-
tifying the true distribution of obscured accretion in the local Universe.
Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor—Poshak Gandhi—for

giving me this incredible opportunity 3.5 years ago, and for teaching me that
nothing is incomprehensible if you give it enough time to comprehend. Thinking
back, I must have knocked on his door an average of three to four times a day for
the entirety of my Ph.D., and I am extremely grateful for the patience and thor-
oughness with which he always took time to answer my questions, worries and
troubles. I am equally grateful to my second supervisor—Sebastian Hönig—for
finding the time to explain the mundane as well as the complicated questions with
an equal level of humility (and of course for the running tips!). These thanks extend
to: Dr. Matt Middleton (aka my third supervisor), Dr. Diego Altamirano,
Dr. Caitriona Jackman, Prof. Christian Knigge, Dr. Francesco Shankar, Prof. Tony
Bird and Prof. Mark Sullivan—your help and wisdom have enabled me to gain
multiple skills that are priceless for my future. I would also like to thank Prof. Fiona
Harrison, Dr. Dan Stern, Dr. Claudio Ricci and Dr. Franz Bauer for hosting me at
their institutions for extended periods throughout my studies (also to Claudio for
answering my many many questions!).
I also thank countless current and previous members of the Southampton
astronomy group for their support and countless advice, including (but not limited
to): Dr. James Matthews, Dr. Chris Frohmaier, Dr. Rebecca French, Dr. Daniel
Asmus, Dr. Johannes Buchner, Dr. Mislav Baloković, Dr. George Lansbury,
Dr. Aru Beri (for X-ray analysis expertise paralleled with delicious recipe ideas),
Dr. Mayukh Pahari, Dr. Aarran Shaw, Dr. Rob Firth, Dr. Sam Connolly, Dominic
Ashton, Dr. Michael Johnson, Norman Khan, Dr. James Leftley, John Paice,
Dr. Phil Wiseman, Dr. Adam Hill, Dr. Jamie Court, Dr. David Williamson, Dr. Jade
Reidy, Dr. Andy Smith, Dr. Steve Browett and Dr. Mathew Smith. You have all
truly helped more than you could possibly imagine.
I would like to thank my friends and family for your unwavering support
throughout the process. Alex and Nikki—thank you for telling me how it is, and
letting me realise the important things.
Finally, I thank my mother and father for their unconditional support throughout
the entire Ph.D. process. To my father for believing in me, especially when I

xiii
xiv Acknowledgements

struggled to myself. To my mother—you do too much for me to list, but please

know that I could not have done this without you.
This work was made possible by financial support from the Science and
Technology Facility Council (STFC), the Royal Astronomical Society, the Institute
of Physics and the California Institute of Technology.

Instruments and Facilities Acknowledgements

This work made use of data from the NuSTAR mission, a project led by the
California Institute of Technology, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and
funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We thank the
NuSTAR Operations, Software, and Calibration teams for support with the exe-
cution and analysis of these observations. This research has made use of the
NuSTAR Data Analysis Software (NuSTARDAS) jointly developed by the ASI
Science Data Center (ASDC, Italy) and the California Institute of Technology
(USA).
The scientific results reported in this work are based on observations made by
the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
This research has made use of data, software, and/or Web tools obtained from
the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), a
service of the Astrophysics Science Division at NASA/GSFC and of the
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s High Energy Astrophysics Division.
This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED),
which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of
Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
This research has made use of data obtained from the Suzaku satellite, a col-
laborative mission between the space agencies of Japan (JAXA) and the USA
(NASA).
This publication makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey
Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
This work is based [in part] on observations made with the Spitzer Space
Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute
of Technology under a contract with NASA.
XMM-Newton: This work made use of data from XMM-Newton, an ESA sci-
ence mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by the ESA
Member States and NASA.
This work made use of data supplied by the UK Swift Science Data Centre at the
University of Leicester.
This research has made use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic
Services.
Acknowledgements xv

This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS,
Strasbourg, France.
This work made use of the numpy (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/MCSE.2011.37),
matplotlib (https://doi.org/10.1109/MCSE.2007.55), scipy (https://doi.org/10.1038/
s41592-019-0686-2), pandas (DOI: https://doi.org/10.25080/Majora-92bf1922-00a),
ChainConsumer (DOI: https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.00045), tqdm (https://doi.org/
10.21105/joss.01277), APLPy (http://aplpy.github.com), lifelines (https://lifelines.
readthedocs.io/en/latest/) and AdjustText (https://github.com/Phlya/adjustText)
Python packages.
This work made extensive use of Jupyter (Kluyver et al., 2016, “Jupyter
Notebooks—a publishing format for reproducible computational workflows”, IOS
Press, pp. 87–90) and IPython (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/MCSE.2007.53).
This research made use of Astropy, (http://www.astropy.org) a community-
developed core Python package for Astronomy (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-
6361/201322068, https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aabc4f).
This research has made use of the VizieR catalogue access tool, CDS,
Strasbourg, France (DOI: https://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier). The original
description of the VizieR service was published in 2000, A&AS 143, 23.
This research has made use of “Aladin sky atlas” developed at CDS, Strasbourg
Observatory, France (2000A&AS..143...33B and 2014ASPC..485..277B).
This research has made use of data obtained from the Chandra Data Archive and
the Chandra Source Catalog, and software provided by the Chandra X-ray Center
(CXC) in the application packages CIAO, ChIPS, and Sherpa.
This work used observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space
Telescope, and obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive, which is a collaboration
between the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI/NASA), the Space Telescope
European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF/ESA) and the Canadian Astronomy Data
Centre (CADC/NRC/CSA).
The scientific results reported in this work are based on observations made by
the InfraRed Astronomy Satellite (IRAS).
This work made use of the XMM-Newton Standard Analysis Software (SAS).
This work made use of the TopCat package (http://aspbooks.org/custom/
publications/paper/347-0029.html).
This thesis was originally typeset by LATEX using TEXShop.
References were organised in this work using BibDesk.
This work made extensive use of SAOImage DS9 (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/
abs/2003ASPC..295..489J/abstract).
This research makes use of the SciServer science platform (www.sciserver.org).
SciServer is a collaborative research environment for large-scale data-driven sci-
ence. It is being developed at, and administered by, the Institute for Data Intensive
Engineering and Science at Johns Hopkins University. SciServer is funded by the
National Science Foundation through the Data Infrastructure Building Blocks
(DIBBs) program and others, as well as by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
xvi Acknowledgements

This project used public archival data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES).
Funding for the DES Projects has been provided by the U.S. Department of Energy,
the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Ministry of Science and Education of
Spain, the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom, the
Higher Education Funding Council for England, the National Center for
Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign,
the Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago, the Center
for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics at the Ohio State University, the Mitchell
Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University,
Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos, Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à
Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento
Científico e Tecnológico and the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação, the
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Collaborating Institutions in the Dark
Energy Survey.
The Collaborating Institutions are Argonne National Laboratory, the University
of California at Santa Cruz, the University of Cambridge, Centro de Investigaciones
Enérgeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas–Madrid, the University of Chicago,
University College London, the DES-Brazil Consortium, the University of
Edinburgh, the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
the Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (IEEC/CSIC), the Institut de Física d’Altes
Energies, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Ludwig-Maximilians
Universität München and the associated Excellence Cluster Universe, the
University of Michigan, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, the
University of Nottingham, The Ohio State University, the OzDES Membership
Consortium, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Portsmouth, SLAC
National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, the University of Sussex,
and Texas A&M University.
Based in part on observations at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory,
National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by the Association of
Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement
with the National Science Foundation.
I would also like to thank the Xspec helpdesk, in particular Craig Gordon and
Keith Arnaud for their tireless help with my queries.
Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Thesis Aims and Open Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 The Cosmic X-Ray Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Active Galactic Nuclei and Seyfert Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3.1 Seyfert Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.2 The Power Source of an AGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.3 The Unified Model of AGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3.4 Intrinsic (Unobscured) AGN X-Ray Spectra . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3.5 Obscured AGN X-Ray Spectra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.4 AGN Selection of the Local AGN Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4.1 Flux-Limited Hard X-Ray Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4.2 Optical Narrow Line Region Emission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.4.3 Radio Low-Frequency Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.4.4 Mid-Infrared Line Emission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.4.5 Mid-to-Far Infrared Continuum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.5 AGN Classifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.5.1 Optical Emission Line Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.5.2 Infrared Photometric Classifications (Infrared Colours) . . . . 18
1.5.3 Broadband X-Ray Spectral Modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.6 AGN Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.6.1 Synthesising the CXB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.6.2 The NH Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.7 Observational Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.7.1 X-Ray Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.7.2 X-Ray Telescope Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.7.3 Statistical Modelling of AGN X-Ray Spectra . . . . . . . . . . 28
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

xvii
xviii Contents

2 IC3639—A New Bona Fide Compton-Thick AGN Unveiled

by NuSTAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.1 Chapter Motivation and Aims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.2 The Target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.3 Observations and Data Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.3.1 NuSTAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.3.2 Suzaku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.3.3 Chandra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
2.4 X-Ray Spectral Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
2.4.1 Slab Models: PEXRAV and PEXMON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.4.2 BNTORUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.4.3 MYTORUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2.5 Results from Spectral Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2.6 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
2.6.1 Spectral Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
2.6.2 Intrinsic AGN Luminosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
2.6.3 Comparison with Other Bona Fide Compton-thick
AGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 69
2.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 75
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 77
3 An Iwasawa-Taniguchi Effect for Compton-Thick Active Galactic
Nuclei . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
3.2 The Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.2.1 High Redshift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
3.2.2 Low Redshift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3.3 Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3.3.1 Infrared Luminosities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3.3.2 Compton-Thick Confirmation of Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
3.3.3 Rest-Frame FeKa Line EWs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3.3.4 Fitting Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
3.4 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
3.5.1 Significance of Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
3.5.2 Physical Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
3.5.3 Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
3.5.4 The Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
3.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Contents xix

4 The NuSTAR Local AGN NH Distribution Survey: Prospects

for Mitigating Obscuration Bias in Local AGN Selection . . . . . . . . . 123
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
4.2 The NuLANDS Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
4.2.1 Sample Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
4.2.2 Sample Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
4.2.3 Sample Culling for Unification Tests and X-Ray
Follow-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
4.2.4 AGN Dominance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
4.2.5 Sample Biases and Representativeness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
4.3 Swift/BAT-dominated NH Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
4.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
5 The NuLANDS NH Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
5.2 Data & Source Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
5.2.1 Source Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
5.2.2 X-Ray Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
5.3 Method and Results for NH Determination Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . 160
5.4 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
5.4.1 Observed Spectral Shape & Fe Ka Strength . . . . . . . . . . . 160
5.4.2 Robust NH Derivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
5.5 Discussion: The Current NH Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
5.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
6 Summary, Conclusions and Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
6.1 Key Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
6.2 Future Avenues of Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
6.2.1 Alternate NH Distributions and Deriving an Obscuration
Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
6.2.2 The Capabilities with Future High-Resolution X-Ray
Spectroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
6.2.3 Ongoing and Future Large Surveys of AGN . . . . . . . . . . . 186
6.3 Closing Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Appendix A: An Iwasawa-Taniguchi Effect for Compton-Thick Active

Galactic Nuclei. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Appendix B: The NuSTAR Local AGN NH Distribution Survey:
Prospects for Mitigating Obscuration Bias in Local AGN
Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Curriculum Vibrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Abbreviations

Å Angstrom
AGN Active Galactic Nucleus/Nuclei
ARF Ancillary Response File
ASCA1 Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics
Athena2 Advanced telescope for high-energy astrophysics
BeppoSAX3 Beppo Satellite per Astronomia a raggi X
BLR Broad Line Region
BLRG Broad Line Radio Galaxy
BPT diagram Baldwin Phillips Terlevich diagram
4
CALDB Calibration DataBase
CCD Charged Coupled Device
5
CIAO Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations
cpl Contamination Power Law
CXB Cosmic X-ray Background
Dec. Declination
DOG Dust Obscured Galaxy
DSS6 Digitized Sky Survey
eMERLIN7 enhanced Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer
Network
eROSITA8 extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging
Telescope Array

1
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/asca/asca2.html.
2
https://www.the-athena-x-ray-observatory.eu.
3
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/sax/sax.html.
4
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/caldb/caldb_intro.html.
5
https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/ciao/.
6
https://archive.eso.org/dss/dss.
7
http://www.e-merlin.ac.uk/index_old.html.
8
https://www.mpe.mpg.de/450415/eROSITA.

xxi
xxii Abbreviations

ESO9 European Southern Observatory

EW Equivalent Width
FG (model) Fixed Gamma
FGN (model) Fixed Gamma & Normalisation
NuSTAR/FPM (A/B) NuSTAR/Focal Plane Module (A/B)
HEASARC10 High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research
Center
HEASoft11 High Energy Astrophysics Software
HEX-P12 High Energy X-ray Probe
HST13 Hubble Space Telescope
HyLIRG Hyper Luminous InfraRed Galaxy
Suzaku/HXD14 Suzaku/Hard X-ray Detector
INTEGRAL15 INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory
ipl Intrinsic Power Law
IR InfraRed
IRAS16 InfraRed Astronomy Satellite
keV kilo electron Volt
LASr Local AGN Survey
LeMMINGs17 Legacy e-MERLIN Multi-band Imaging of Nearby
Galaxies survey
LINER Low Ionisation Nuclear Emision Region
LIRG Luminous InfraRed Galaxy
LISA18 Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
LOFAR19 LOw-Frequency ARray
MCMC Monte Carlo Markov Chain
MRI MagnetoRotational Instability
NED20 NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
Neil Gehrels Swift/BAT21 Neil Gehrels Swift/Burst Alert Telescope
Neil Gehrels Swift/XRT22 Neil Gehrels Swift/X-Ray Telescope

9
https://www.eso.org/public/.
10
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov.
11
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/lheasoft/.
12
Madsen et al. (2019; https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019BAAS...51g.166M/abstract), BAAS,
51g, 166.
13
https://www.stsci.edu/hst.
14
https://doi.org/10.1093/pasj/59.sp1.S35.
15
https://sci.esa.int/web/integral.
16
https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/IRASdocs/iras.html.
17
http://www.e-merlin.ac.uk/legacy/projects/lemmings.html.
18
https://lisa.nasa.gov.
19
http://www.lofar.org.
20
https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu.
21
https://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov/about_swift/bat_desc.html.
22
https://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov/about_swift/xrt_desc.html.
Abbreviations xxiii

NH Equivalent Hydrogen column density

NLR Narrow Line Region
NLRG Narrow Line Radio Galaxy
NXB Non X-ray Background
NuLANDS NuSTAR Local AGN N H Distribution Survey
NuSTAR23 Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray
NuSTARDAS24 NuSTAR Data Analysis Software
PAH Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon
pc parsec
PHA Pulse Height Amplitude
PI (observing) Principle Investigator
PI (X-ray files) Pulse Invariant
PSF Point Spread Function
QSO Quasi Stellar Object
R. A. Right Ascension
RMF Redistribution Matrix File
ROSAT25 RöntgenSATellit
(XMM-Newton) SAS26 Science Analysis Software
SDSS27 Sloan Digital Sky Survey
SFR Star Formation Rate
SKA28 Square Kilometer Array
SMM29 Solar Maximum Mission
Spitzer/MIPS30 Spitzer/Multiband Imaging Photometer
Spitzer/IRAC31 Spitzer/InfraRed Array Camera
SPL Scattered Power Law
TG (model) Thawed Gamma
ULIRG Ultra Luminous InfraRed Galaxy
VISIR32 VLT Imager and Spectrometer for mid-InfraRed
VLT33 Very Large Telescope
Athena/WFI34 Athena/Wide Field Imager
WISE35 Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

23
https://www.nustar.caltech.edu.
24
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/nustar/analysis/nustar_swguide.pdf.
25
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat/rosat3.html.
26
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/sas-threads.
27
https://www.sdss.org.
28
https://www.skatelescope.org.
29
https://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SMM.shtml.
30
https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/SPITZER/docs/mips/.
31
https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/SPITZER/docs/irac/.
32
https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/instruments/visir.html.
33
https://www.eso.org/public/unitedkingdom/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/.
34
http://www.mpe.mpg.de/ATHENA-WFI/.
35
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/main/index.html.
xxiv Abbreviations

XBONG X-ray Bright Optically Normal Galaxy

Suzaku/XIS36 X-ray Imaging Spectrometer
XMM-Newton37 X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission-Newton
XRISM38 X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission
Xspec 39 X-ray Spectral Fitting Package

36
https://doi.org/10.1093/pasj/59.sp1.S23.
37
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton.
38
https://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sas/xrism/.
39
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xanadu/xspec/index.html.
Chapter 1
Introduction

“You can’t make an omelette

without cracking some eggs.”
—Mum

1.1 Thesis Aims and Open Questions

This thesis aims to answer some of the unsolved questions associated with obscured
accretion. Such key open questions are:
1. What is the geometry and nature of the obscuring region?
2. What are the requirements for resolving degeneracies in this obscuration model
parameter space?
3. What is the effect of intrinsic luminosity on the enshrouding obscuration sur-
rounding Compton-thick AGN?
4. What do large AGN censuses tell us about the distribution of obscuration amongst
the AGN population?
Addressing these questions now is timely due to the availability of new tools such
as NuSTAR—the first instrument capable of true high-energy X-ray focusing above
10 keV. In the remainder of this chapter, I overview the key motivation for studying
obscured AGN, as well as the tools I use in thesis to do so. Each chapter that follows
the introduction addresses these open questions as follows. In Chap. 2, I address
questions 1 and 2 by presenting a detailed spectral analysis of a robust Compton-
thick AGN candidate, selected from previous works via multi-wavelength indicators
and lower-sensitivity X-ray data below 10 keV. I test multiple obscurer geometries to
establish the true intrinsic power of the source, as well as the nature of its obscurer
from the X-ray regime. Chapter 3 then focusses on question 3, with a study of repro-
cessing vs. luminosity for a sample of heavily obscured AGN, over a wide redshift

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 1

P. Boorman, The Accretion and Obscured Growth of Supermassive Black Holes,
Springer Theses, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60361-8_1
2 1 Introduction

range. This work identified a tentative relation that is not compatible with the accepted
schematic of heavily obscured AGN, potentially requiring an update to current X-ray
models. Chapters 4 and 5 then address the final question with a large legacy survey
of AGN, designed to be representative of the circumnuclear obscuration in AGN,
critically incorporating extremely obscured sources. I then summarise my findings,
and give an outlook for the future of obscured AGN studies in Chap. 6.

1.2 The Cosmic X-Ray Background

The discovery of the diffuse isotropic Cosmic X-ray Background radiation (CXB;
[70]) pre-dates that of the higher-intensity Cosmic Microwave Background [144].
However, the origin of the CXB was debated for decades after its discovery, and
started the entire field of X-ray astronomy as a whole. The CXB spectrum encom-
passes approximately three orders of magnitude in energy—E ∼0.1–300 keV, and
exhibits a broad peak at ∼30 keV—see Fig. 1.1.
Two conflicting theories were proposed to explain the isotropic nature of the X-ray
Background: a truly diffuse intergalactic hot gas, or the integrated (and unresolved)
emission from a large number of isotropically distributed point sources. The former
was proposed due to the similarity between the spectrum of the X-ray Background,
and that of a hot plasma with temperature of ∼5 × 108 K—see Fig. 1.2. Furthermore,
early surveys proving the isotropy of the X-ray Background (e.g., with Uhuru; [71]
and Ariel V ; [127]) implied that the number of discrete sources had to be very
large for the latter hypothesis to be true. However, the possibility of a hot diffuse
plasma uniformly filling the Universe was ruled out by Mather et al. [125] with the
COBE satellite. The authors found very little distortion of the Cosmic Microwave

50
ASCA / SIS
E FE / keV s−1 sr−1 cm−2

40
HEAO

30 INTEGRAL / IBIS + SPI

INTEGRAL / JEMX
SMM
20
Swift / BAT
Swift / XRT
Averaged
10
1 10 30 100 300
E / keV

Fig. 1.1 The broadband observed spectrum of the CXB radiation. Data provided by R. Gilli (private
communication)
1.2 The Cosmic X-Ray Background 3

Fig. 1.2 The CXB spectral shape compared to the spectrum of a hot collisionally ionised plasma

Background that was required from scattering by hot electrons that would occupy
such a hot plasma. This stringently confirmed that the CXB must have originated as
the summed emission from faint discrete X-ray sources across cosmic time. Multiple
surveys with X-ray satellites have now resolved varying fractions of the soft CXB
spectrum, finding the vast majority of sources to be accreting supermassive black
holes (e.g., [80, 106, 109, 134]—see Sect. 1.6.1 for more information).

1.3 Active Galactic Nuclei and Seyfert Galaxies

Ever since the first optical spectra of galaxies were taken, certain sources were seen
to exhibit unusually strong emission and absorption lines from their cores (e.g., [59,
86, 170]), though their numbers were relatively low. Due to this level of activity
in their centers, such galaxies were named Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Seyfert
[166] was the first to study a sample of 7 AGN featuring high-excitation nuclear
emission lines, revealing a diverse collection of spectra, in which some galaxies had
very strong narrow permitted and forbidden lines (e.g., NGC 1068), whilst others
were observed with very strong broad permitted emission lines (e.g., NGC 4051).
Due to his pioneering work, these galaxies were names Seyfert galaxies—a name
that is still used today to describe active galaxies with typical bolometric luminosities
1042  L Bol /erg s−1  1045 .
Although optical astronomy established the broad study of AGN, radio astronomy
was responsible for a wide array of vital advancements since the 20th century. For
example, dedicated radio surveys (e.g., Cambridge; [48]) discovered a large number
of bright point-like, ‘quasi-stellar radio sources’, or quasars. The coincidence of these
4 1 Introduction

sources with very bright high redshift ‘quasi stellar objects’ (QSOs) in the optical
waveband (e.g., 3C 273; [165]) led to the discovery that QSOs were extremely bright
AGN, typically outshining the entire host galaxy completely with L Bol /erg s−1  1045 .

1.3.1 Seyfert Galaxies

Khachikian and Weedman [93] were the first to sort AGN into two specific groups
based on their optical spectral properties. Out of a total of 71 Seyfert galaxies, the
authors reported that the observed differences in spectra could be broadly categorised
into two types:
Type 2 Display forbidden atomic emission lines, as well as permitted Balmer lines,
with the latter having width approximately 500–1000 km s−1 . Non-active
galaxies typically have Balmer widths of 200 km s−1 .
Type 1 Display forbidden and permitted lines, just as Type 2 objects, but with the
Balmer lines displaying widths of several 1000 km s−1 .
Osterbrock [138] then segregating AGN further into intermediate classes of Seyfert
Types 1.2, 1.5, 1.8 and 1.9 based on the relative strength of broad and narrow lines. In
addition to these intermediate Seyfert classes, there are also Narrow Line Seyfert 1
galaxies [139], with the observed properties of Seyfert 1 galaxies, though with unusu-
ally narrow Balmer lines, as well as strong Fe ii emission. There are a number of
additional AGN classes outside of those for Seyfert galaxies, as shown in Fig. 1.3.
Seyfert galaxies often also display significant ultraviolet excesses commonly referred
to as the ‘big blue bump’. Such an excess has been attributed to the emission from
hot stars (likely the case for Seyfert 2 galaxies), or from an accretion disc (as sug-
gested for Seyfert 1 galaxies). However, the observed high luminosities across the
full electromagnetic spectrum (i.e. infrared, optical, ultraviolet and X-ray) indicate
that stars cannot be a major contributor to the emission observed in AGN.
Antonucci [10] was one of the first pieces of evidence for Seyfert 1s and 2s
sharing a common progenitor. The authors detected broad Balmer emission lines in
the polarised optical spectrum of NGC 1068, which was direct evidence that Seyfert 2
galaxies hosted an emission region just like Seyfert 1s capable of producing broad
emission lines (the Broad Line Region). However, in these systems the BLR was
likely obscured along our line of sight by an obscuring structure, beginning the
unified model of AGN.
1.3 Active Galactic Nuclei and Seyfert Galaxies 5

Forbidden Lines / Å
[N II] [S II]
[O III] [N I] [Fe VII] [O I] 6548 6716
4959 5007 5199 6087 6300 6583 6731
BL Lac BL Lacertae

BLRG 3C 390.3

NLRG
Cygnus A
Type 1 QSO 3C 273

Type 2 QSO Mrk 34

Seyfert 1 NGC 4051

NL Seyfert 1 Mrk 493

Seyfert 1.2 Mrk 141

Seyfert 1.5 Mrk 662

Seyfert 1.8 Mrk 609

Seyfert 1.9 Mrk 1018

Seyfert 2 IC 3639

LINER Type 1 NGC 4550

LINER Type 2 NGC 1052

H ii Galaxy Mrk 1039

Elliptical Galaxy NGC 4472

Fe II He II Hβ He I Hα
4570 4686 4861 5876 6563
Permitted Lines / Å

Fig. 1.3 Compilation of different types of AGN optical spectra. From top to bottom: Featureless
continuum of BL Lacertae, Broad Line Radio Galaxy, Narrow Line Radio Galaxy, Type 1 QSO,
Type 2 QSO, Seyfert 1, Narrow Line Seyfert 1, Seyfert 1.2, Seyfert 1.5, Seyfert 1.8, Seyfert 1.9,
Seyfert 2, Low Ionisation Nuclear Emission Region (LINER) Type 1, LINER Type 2, H ii (star-
forming) galaxy and elliptical galaxy

1.3.2 The Power Source of an AGN

It is now widely accepted that supermassive black holes reside at the centers of almost
all galaxies in the Universe (e.g., [51, 53], Fig. 1.41 ). The process of accretion onto a
supermassive black hole releases gravitational potential energy in the most efficient

1 Original figure available from DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ab0e85.

6 1 Introduction

Fig. 1.4 Credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration et al. [51], © AAS. Reproduced with
permission. The first images produced of a black hole captured by the Event Horizon Telescope.
The source is the active supermassive black hole in M 87. The material being accreted can be seen
as well as the boundary to which light cannot escape the gravitational well of the black hole

manner of any known physical process in the Universe. As matter falls into the
potential well of the compact object, the simplest models involve the generation of
an accretion disc that efficiently radiates the gravitational potential energy released.
The gravitational energy released, E from the accretion of a packet of mass,
m onto a black hole of mass M and radius R is given by:

G Mm
E = (1.1)
R
The total luminosity (energy emitted per unit time interval) produced is then given
by:
G M Ṁ
L= = η Ṁc2 (1.2)
R

where Ṁ is the mass accretion rate, and η is the efficiency of the process. By re-
arranging Eq. 1.2, we see that η ∝ M/R—known as the compactness of the central
object. The accretion rate required to power and AGN is then given by:

L  
−3 L 44
Ṁ = ≈ 1.8 × 10 M yr −1 (1.3)
ηc2 η

This equation means that the amount of energy generated by converting gravita-
tional potential energy into radiation via accretion relies on how large the efficiency
η can become. The Schwarzschild radius is the event horizon for a static black
hole,2 and can be used as a characteristic size scale for the compact object. Thus the
energy released from the accretion of a packet of mass to within a few Schwarzschild
radii of the accreting black hole gives an efficiency of η ∼ 0.1 [145]. The proton-
proton chain associated with nuclear fusion3 results in an energy conversion effi-
ciency of just η ∼ 0.007—an order of magnitude less efficient than accretion onto a
black hole. If we substitute η = 0.1 into Eq. 1.3, for a bright quasar with luminosity

2 Given by RS = 2G M
c2
.
3 In which two protons are fused to produce a helium nucleus.
1.3 Active Galactic Nuclei and Seyfert Galaxies 7

L QSO = 1046 erg s−1 , the accretion rate is Ṁ ∼ 2 M yr−1 . The efficiency is theoreti-
cally predicted to increase with the spin of the black hole, since the last stable circular
orbit is closer in for the rotating case.
If matter being accreted possesses some net angular momentum, any individual
colliding particles will always conserve angular momentum as a whole, such that a
steady-state accretion disc will form. For a packet of mass to fall onto the compact
object requires a net loss of angular momentum. Thus if the entire accretion disc is
to maintain a constant total angular momentum, some angular momentum must be
transported outwards. A common method invoked to do this is the MagnetoRotational
Instability ([18], MRI), in which a weak magnetic field is capable of inducing a strong
shearing instability that can lead to a transport of angular momentum outwards, and
allowing the accretion of material.

1.3.3 The Unified Model of AGN

The unified model of AGN aims to consolidate the diverse observed zoo of active
galaxies as intrinsically an accreting supermassive black hole, with observed prop-
erties largely due to an orientation effect relative to anisotropic dusty obscurer, orig-
inally thought to be oriented as a smooth ‘torus’ (e.g., [9, 136, 181], see Fig 1.5).
The model incorporates the aforementioned Seyfert galaxies and quasars, as well as

Fig. 1.5 Schematic illustrating the unified model of AGN, essentially relying solely on the sight
line of the observer relative to the central accretion disc
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