Unveiling obscured accretion

Abstract

We present the latest determination of the X-ray (2-10 keV) AGN luminosity function accounting for the selection effect due to X-ray absorption. The main results are: 1) the inclusion of obscured AGN confirms the AGN differential luminosity evolution, but makes it less extreme than what is found selecting unobscured AGN in soft X-rays, and more similar to a pure luminosity evolution; 2) significant correlations are found between the fraction of obscured sources, the luminosity and the redshift, this fraction increasing toward both low AGN luminosities and high redshifts. We discuss our findings in a scenario for the formation and evolution of the structure in the Universe where the bulk of nuclear activity is produced at z=1-2. At the same redshifts also the star-formation rate reaches a maximum, and this age can therefore be regarded as the "golden age" for nuclear and galaxy activity. We discuss the current observational limits of this program and the improvements needed to obtain an unbiased census of the AGN and super-massive black hole (SMBH) population.