Master Thesis Defense by Fabiano Tracanna

Title: Exploring the Relationship between Obscuration and Star Formation Rate in Active Galactic Nuclei

Abstract:
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are now thought to play a key role in galaxy evolution, by regulating properties such as the star formation rate (SFR). AGN-galaxy co-evolution models usually associate more obscured AGN to earlier evolutionary stages. The objective of this thesis is to explore a possible link between AGN obscuration levels and the (SFRs) of their host galaxies. To this end, I created a multi-wavelength photometric catalogue of X-ray selected AGN in the COSMOS field and perform detailed Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) fitting to estimate the SFR of the host galaxy. I select a subset of active galaxies and classify the AGN as obscured or unobscured depending on their column density being above or below 10²²cm^-2, respectively. Redshift and X-ray luminosity biases are also controlled by re-sampling the populations. A hierarchical Bayesian framework, coupled with a Monte Carlo sampling method, is used to analyze the results and draw statistical conclusions.

Supervisors:

• Marianne Vestergaard, University of Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute
• Dr. Chiara Circosta - Co-supervisor, ESA

Censor:

• Jérôme Chenevez, DTU
  

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