ﻻ يوجد ملخص باللغة العربية
We analyze Hubble Space Telescope observations of scattering regions in 20 luminous obscured quasars at $0.24<z<0.65$ (11 new observations and 9 archival ones) observed at rest-frame $sim 3000$AA. We find spectacular $5-10$ kpc-scale scattering regions in almost all cases. The median scattering efficiency at this wavelength (the ratio of observed to estimated intrinsic flux) is 2.3%, and 73% of the observed flux at this wavelength is due to scattered light, which if unaccounted for may strongly bias estimates of quasar hosts star formation rates. Modeling these regions as illuminated dusty cones, we estimate the radial density distributions of the interstellar medium as well as the geometric properties of circumnuclear quasar obscuration -- inclinations and covering factors. Small derived opening angles (median half-angle and standard deviation 27dg$pm$9dg) are inconsistent with a 1:1 type 1 / type 2 ratio. We suggest that quasar obscuration is patchy and that the observer has a $sim 40%$ chance of seeing a type 1 source even through the obscuration. We estimate median density profile of the scattering medium to be $n_{rm H}=0.04-0.5$ $(1{rm kpc}/r)^2$ cm$^{-3}$, depending on the method. Quasars in our sample likely exhibit galaxy-wide winds, but if these consist of optically thick clouds then only a small fraction of the wind mass ($la 10%$) contributes to scattering.
Fast brightness variations are a unique tool to probe the innermost regions of active galactic nuclei (AGN). These variations are called microvariability or intra-night variability, and this phenomenon has been monitored in samples of blazars and uno
Quasar-driven outflows must have made their most significant impact on galaxy formation during the epoch when massive galaxies were forming most rapidly. To study the impact of quasar feedback we conducted rest-frame optical integral field spectrogra
The most heavily-obscured, luminous quasars might represent a specific phase of the evolution of actively accreting supermassive black holes and their host galaxies, possibly related to mergers. We investigated a sample of the most luminous quasars a
Studying the coupling between the energy output produced by the central quasar and the host galaxy is fundamental to fully understand galaxy evolution. Quasar feedback is indeed supposed to dramatically affect the galaxy properties by depositing larg
We present a spectroscopically complete sample of 147 infrared-color-selected AGN down to a 22 $mu$m flux limit of 20 mJy over the $sim$270 deg$^2$ of the SDSS Stripe 82 region. Most of these sources are in the QSO luminosity regime ($L_{rm bol} gtrs