Abstract
Hints of cosmic reionization, and most of what we know about the intergalactic medium, come from QSO absorption lines. Being able to reach such conclusions requires the presence of QSOs as background sources for the absorbing material. Their high luminosity has long made quasars attractive probes of the distant Universe, not only through absorption of their light by foreground material, but as background sources for gravitational lensing. The role of active galactic nuclei in our picture of galaxy formation and evolution extends well beyond these indirect applications. These objects, especially the luminous quasars, directly pose profound issues about events in the early universe. Their existence at high redshifts indicates that some galaxies (perhaps the most concentrated or most massive) had formed by then, and the chemical makeup of their emitting gas shows that their immediate environments must have undergone rapid and intense star formation.
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© 2007 Praxis Publishing Ltd, Chichester, UK
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(2007). Active galactic nuclei in the early universe. In: The Road to Galaxy Formation. Springer Praxis Books. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72535-0_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72535-0_8
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