Graduate course: Active Galactic Nuclei 

Lecturers: Dra. Yaherlyn Diaz & Dra. Prof. Alejandra Rojas

Description

From an observational perspective, this graduate course provides a comprehensive overview of the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN),  from the immediate environment of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) to the properties of their host galaxies. It emphasizes how observations help us to understand the co-evolution between SMBHs and galaxies, as well as the physical processes behind highly energetic phenomena such as accretion disks and relativistic jets.

Readings/Bibliography

Some suggested books and articles/review articles where an in-depth investigation of the topics covered by this course can be found are included below. No need to read all of them.

Books

• Netzer, H. Physics and Evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei. 2013, Cambridge University Press

• Peterson, B. An Introduction to Active Galactic Nuclei. 1997, Cambridge University Press

• Bruce T. Draine. Physics of the Interstellar and Intergalactic Medium. 2011

• G. B. Rybicky, A. P. Lightman: "Radiative Processes in Astrophysics", Wiley

• The Physics of Accretion onto Black Holes. 2015. Springer.

Review articles: some suggestions

• J. Kormendy & L. C. Ho: "Coevolution (Or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies", Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 51, 511 (2013)

• L. C. Ho: "Nuclear Activity in Nearby Galaxies", Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 46, 475 (2008)

• H. Netzer: "Revisiting the Unified Model of Active Galactic Nuclei", ARA&A, 53, 365 (2015)

• P. Padovani et al.:"Active galactic nuclei: what's in a name?", Astron. Astrophys. Rev., 25, 2 (2017)

• R. Blandford, D. Meier, A. Readhead: "Relativistic jets from Active Galactic Nuclei", ARA&A, 57, 467 (2019)

• M.J. Hardcastle, J.H. Croston: "Radio galaxies and feedback from AGN jets", New Astronomy Reviews, 88, 101539 (2020)

• C. R. Almeida, C. Ricci: "Nuclear obscuration in active galactic nuclei", Nature Astronomy 1, 679 (2017)

• R.C. Hyckox, D.M. Alexander:"Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei", ARA&A, 56, 625 (2018)

• N.I. Shakura, R.A. Sunyaev: "Black Holes in Binary Systems. Observational appearance", A&A, 24, 337 (1973)

• F. Yuan, R. Narayan: "Hot Accretion Flows Around Black Holes", ARA&A, 52, 529 (2014)

• The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration: "First M87 Event Horizon Telescope results. I. The shadow of the supermassive black hole", ApJ, 875, L1 (2019)

• A.C. Fabian: "Observational evidence of active galactic nuclei feedback", ARA&A, 50, 455 (2012)

• A. King & K. Pounds: "Powerful Outflows and Feedback from Active Galactic Nuclei", ARA&A, 53, 115 (2015)

• R. Morganti: "The many routes to AGN Feedback", Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, 4, 42 (2017)

• C.M. Harrison et al.: "AGN outflows and feedback twenty years on", Nature Astronomy 2, 198, arXiv:1802.10306 (2018)

• C.M. Harrison, C.R. Almeida: "Observational Tests of Active Galactic Nuclei Feedback: An Overview of Approaches and Interpretation", Galaxies, 12, 17 (2024)

• E. Kara and J. García. "Supermassive Black Holes in X-Rays: From Standard Accretion to Extreme Transients". 2025.