Affiliation: Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço – U. de Lisboa

Contribution: Poster

Title: Unveiling the faintest X-ray AGN populations in the NewATHENA Era: Insights from Cosmological Simulations

Abstract: The latest astronomical observations have propelled our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution to unprecedented depths. Despite these advancements, current facilities still face significant challenges, especially in the high-energy X-ray regime crucial for studying Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), which prompted the development of Next Generation Observatories. ESA’s future NewATHENA mission has been conceived as a powerful X-ray observatory with an unprecedented combination of collecting area, survey capabilities and energy resolution. With NewATHENA going through phase B mission definition, detailed testing campaign is necessary to ensure that it can fulfill its science goals, highly dependent on the uncertain AGN population at the highest redshifts. This research leverages the IllustrisTNG cosmological simulation to generate X-ray AGN mock catalogues tailored to test NewATHENA capabilities. By bridging the gap between theory and observations, our simulations are complementary to a purely observational approach and provide a comprehensive virtual laboratory to explore AGN characteristics and detectability. The resulting predictions will enhance NewATHENA’s mission design, optimizing its ability to uncover and analyze high-redshift AGN, which are otherwise difficult to observe with existing X-ray telescopes.

This contribution can be found in the Poster Hall.