Speaker: Dr. Stephanie LaMassa, Space Telescope Science Institute
Abstract: Active galactic nuclei (AGN) serve as signposts of growing supermassive black holes, allowing us to study how these objects evolve from the early Universe to the present day. Surveying patches of the sky uncover representative samples of AGN, with different survey strategies favoring different populations. Rare objects that have a low space density, like high luminosity AGN, can only be adequately sampled via wide-area surveys that probe a large volume of the Universe. "Stripe 82X”, an X-ray survey covering ~30 deg^2 of the rich multi-wavelength Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82 field, is designed to uncover obscured, luminous black hole growth. In this talk, I will summarize the AGN demographics discovered in Stripe 82X and how they compare with AGN identified from wide-area optical and mid-infrared surveys. I will discuss what we have learned about the host galaxies of these luminous AGN and how AGN properties evolve with redshift and luminosity. Finally, I will mention exciting future prospects for learning more about the cosmic evolution of rare (yet important!) high-redshift, high luminosity obscured AGN.