PSILOGO

Laboratory for Particle Physics (LTP)


LTP Colloquium

Observation of the early universe with the X-ray satellites Chandra and XMM-Newton

Friday, April 19, 2002, 16:00
WHGA Auditorium

Prof. G. Hasinger, MPI for extraterrestric physics, Munich

Abstract:
X-ray spectroscopy with XMM is now of such high quality that even for faint AGN at intermediate redshifts Fe K-alpha lines can be detected and utilized to diagnose the gravitational potential in the immediate vicinity of the black hole. The future studies will focus on a better understanding of the formation and accretion history of the black holes as well as their physical environment. In particular the comparison with the star forming history in the universe and the question: "Who was there first, the stars or the black holes?" will be important in the first decades of the new century. Future X-ray observatories, most notably XEUS, will be able to detect and study early black holes out to redshifts of ~10 and possibly constrain their mass and spin evolution.