We present the most up-to-date X-ray luminosity function (XLF) and absorption function of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) over the redshift range from 0 to 5, utilizing the largest, highly complete sample ever available obtained from surveys performed with Swift/BAT, MAXI, ASCA, XMM-Newton, Chandra, and ROSAT. The combined sample, including that of the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey, consists of 4039 detections in the soft (0.5-2 keV) and/or hard (> 2 keV) band. We utilize a maximum likelihood method to reproduce the countrate versus redshift distribution for each survey, by taking into account the evolution of the absorbed fraction, the contribution from Compton-thick (CTK) AGNs, and broad band spectra of AGNs including reflection components from tori based on the luminosity and redshift dependent unified scheme. We find that the shape of the XLF at z ∼ 1 − 3 is significantly different from that in the local universe, for which the luminosity dependent density evolution model gives much better description than the luminosity and density evolution model. These results establish the standard population synthesis model of the X-Ray Background (XRB), which well reproduces the source counts, the observed fractions of CTK AGNs, and the spectrum of the hard XRB. The number ratio of CTK AGNs to the absorbed Compton-thin (CTN) AGNs is constrained to be ≈0.5-1.6 to produce the 20-50 keV XRB intensity within present uncertainties, by assuming that they follow the same evolution as CTN AGNs. The growth history of supermassive black holes is discussed based on the new AGN bolometric luminosity function.

The Dark Energy Camera is a new imager with a 2°. 2 diameter field of view mounted at the prime focus of the Victor M. Blanco 4m telescope on Cerro Tololo near La Serena, Chile. The camera was designed and constructed by the Dark Energy Survey Collaborationand meets or exceeds the stringent requirements designed for the widefield and supernova surveys for which the collaboration uses it. The camera consists of a five-element optical corrector, seven filters, a shutter with a 60 cm aperture, and a charge-coupled device (CCD) focal plane of 250 μm thick fully depleted CCDs cooled inside a vacuum Dewar. The 570 megapixel focal plane comprises 62 2k × 4k CCDs for imaging and 12 2k × 2k CCDs for guiding and focus. The CCDs have 15 μm × 15 μm pixels with a plate scale of 0 263 pixel −1. A hexapod system provides state-of-the-art focus and alignment capability. The camera is read out in 20 s with 6-9 electronreadout noise. This paper provides a technical description of the cameraʼs engineering, construction, installation, and current status.

We present a highly complete and reliable mid-infrared (MIR) colour selection of luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN) candidates using the 3.4, 4.6 and 12 µm bands of the Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) survey. The MIR colour wedge was defined using the wide-angle Bright Ultrahard XMM-Newton survey (BUXS), one of the largest complete flux-limited samples of bright (f 4.5-10 keV > 6 × 10 −14 erg s −1 cm −2 ) 'ultrahard' (4.5-10 keV) X-ray-selected AGN to date. The BUXS includes 258 objects detected over a total sky area of 44.43 deg 2 of which 251 are spectroscopically identified and classified, with 145 being type 1 AGN and 106 type 2 AGN. Our technique is designed to select objects with red MIR power-law spectral energy distributions (SEDs) in the three shortest bands of WISE and properly accounts for the errors in the photometry and deviations of the MIR SEDs from a pure power-law. The completeness of the MIR selection is a strong function of luminosity. At L 2-10 keV > 10 44 erg s −1 , where the AGN is expected to dominate the MIR emission, 97.1 +2.2 −4.8 and 76.5 +13.3 −18.4 per cent of the BUXS type 1 and type 2 AGN, respectively, meet the selection. Our technique shows one of the highest reliability and efficiency of detection of the X-rayselected luminous AGN population with WISE amongst those in the literature. In the area covered by BUXS our selection identifies 2755 AGN candidates detected with signal-to-noise ratio ≥5 in the three shorter wavelength bands of WISE with 38.5 per cent having a detection at 2-10 keV X-ray energies. We also analysed the possibility of including the 22 µm WISE band to select AGN candidates, but neither the completeness nor the reliability of the selection improves. This is likely due to both the significantly shallower depth at 22 µm compared with the first three bands of WISE and star formation contributing to the 22 µm emission at the WISE 22 µm sensitivity.

Now that gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been determined to lie at cosmological distances, their isotropic burst energies are estimated to be as high as 1054 erg (ref. 2), making them the most energetic phenomena in the Universe. The nature of the progenitors responsible for the bursts remains, however, elusive. The favoured models range from the merger of two neutron stars in a binary system to the collapse of a massive star. Spectroscopic studies of the afterglow emission could reveal details of the environment of the burst, by indicating the elements present, the speed of the outflow and an estimate of the temperature. Here we report an X-ray spectrum of the afterglow of GRB011211, which shows emission lines of magnesium, silicon, sulphur, argon, calcium and possibly nickel, arising in metal-enriched material with an outflow velocity of the order of one-tenth the speed of light. These observations strongly favour models where a supernova explosion from a massive stellar progenitor precedes the burst event and is responsible for the outflowing matter.

We present the results of a search for galaxy clusters in Subaru-XMM Deep Field. We reach a depth for a total cluster flux in the 0.5-2 keV band of 2x10^{-15} ergs cm^{-2} s^{-1} over one of the widest XMM-Newton contiguous raster surveys, covering an area of 1.3 square degrees. Cluster candidates are identified through a wavelet detection of extended X-ray emission. The red sequence technique allows us to identify 57 cluster candidates. We report on the progress with the cluster spectroscopic follow-up and derive their properties based on the X-ray luminosity and cluster scaling relations. In addition, 3 sources are identified as X-ray counterparts of radio lobes, and in 3 further sources, X-ray counterpart of radio lobes provides a significant fraction of the total flux of the source. In the area covered by NIR data, our identification success rate achieves 86%. We detect a number of radio galaxies within our groups and for a luminosity-limited sample of radio galaxies we compute halo occupation statistics using a marked cluster mass function. We compare the cluster detection statistics in the SXDF with the predictions of concordance cosmology and current knowledge of the X-ray cluster properties, concluding that a reduction of concordance sigma_8 value by 5% is required in order to match the prediction of the model and the data. This conclusion still needs verification through the completion of cluster follow-up.Comment: 15 pages, MNRAS sub