Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Index of Participants
- Preface
- I Evidence and Implications of Anisotropy in AGN
- II Luminosity Functions and Continuum Energy Distributions
- Radio Luminosity Functions of Active Galaxies
- The Quasar Luminosity Function
- UK ROSAT Deep & Extended Deep Surveys
- Luminosity Dependence of Optical Activity in Radio Galaxies
- Modelling the Quasar Luminosity Function in Hierarchical Models for Structure Formation
- Active Galactic Nuclei in Clusters of Galaxies
- Clustering Properties of AGNs and their Contribution to the X-ray Background
- Energy Distributions of AGN
- Absorption in the ROSAT X-ray Spectra of Quasars
- Dust in AGNs
- First Simultaneous UBVRI Photopolarimetric Observations of a Sample of Normal Quasars
- Intermediate Resolution Spectropolarimetry of Three Quasars
- Active Galaxies which Emit Strongly at 25μm
- III The Broad Line Region: Variability and Structure
- IV X-rays and Accretion Disks
- V Beams, Jets and Blazars
- VI Concluding Talk
Radio Luminosity Functions of Active Galaxies
from II - Luminosity Functions and Continuum Energy Distributions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Index of Participants
- Preface
- I Evidence and Implications of Anisotropy in AGN
- II Luminosity Functions and Continuum Energy Distributions
- Radio Luminosity Functions of Active Galaxies
- The Quasar Luminosity Function
- UK ROSAT Deep & Extended Deep Surveys
- Luminosity Dependence of Optical Activity in Radio Galaxies
- Modelling the Quasar Luminosity Function in Hierarchical Models for Structure Formation
- Active Galactic Nuclei in Clusters of Galaxies
- Clustering Properties of AGNs and their Contribution to the X-ray Background
- Energy Distributions of AGN
- Absorption in the ROSAT X-ray Spectra of Quasars
- Dust in AGNs
- First Simultaneous UBVRI Photopolarimetric Observations of a Sample of Normal Quasars
- Intermediate Resolution Spectropolarimetry of Three Quasars
- Active Galaxies which Emit Strongly at 25μm
- III The Broad Line Region: Variability and Structure
- IV X-rays and Accretion Disks
- V Beams, Jets and Blazars
- VI Concluding Talk
Summary
Introduction
Philosophy
It seems that every time a new population of extragalactic object is discovered, the first reaction of astronomers is to construct a luminosity function. Beyond sheer botany, this serves the useful purpose of giving a check on the completeness of surveys. The long-term motivation is Physics: the hope that the luminosity function and its change with redshift (the nearest we can get to an evolutionary track for a single object) will tell us something about how these spectacular sources operate. However, it has to be said that this objective remains in the far distance, despite nearly three decades of effort.
Why the radio waveband? Apart from the weight of history (radio astronomers take the blame for starting AGN research), the lack of foreground extinction and the lack of catalogue contamination by galactic objects are still very powerful advantages.
Notation
There are a few (arbitrary) conventions commonly adopted in the literature on this subject. The comoving density of objects per unit log10 power is denoted by ρ. The Hubble constant, where quoted explicitly, is given in the form h = H0/100 kms−1Mpc−1. Unless otherwise specified, Ω = 1 and h = 0.5 are assumed.
Radio astronomers' who's who
Radio astronomy takes the brutalist line of ordering the Universe according to output.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Nature of Compact Objects in Active Galactic NucleiProceedings of the 33rd Herstmonceux Conference, held in Cambridge, July 6-22, 1992, pp. 101 - 109Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994