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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
earth and planetary sciences
Mid-infrared selection of active galactic nuclei with the wide-field infrared survey explorer. II. Properties of wise-selected active galactic nuclei in the NDWFS boötes field
Astrophysical Journal, Volume 772, No. 1, Article 26, Year 2013
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Description
Stern et al. presented a study of Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) selection of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the 2 deg2 COSMOS field, finding that a simple criterion W1-W2 ≥ 0.8 provides a highly reliable and complete AGN sample for W2 < 15.05, where the W1 and W2 passbands are centered at 3.4 μm and 4.6 μm, respectively. Here we extend this study using the larger 9 deg2 NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey Boötes field which also has considerably deeper WISE observations than the COSMOS field, and find that this simple color cut significantly loses reliability at fainter fluxes. We define a modified selection criterion combining the W1-W2 color and the W2 magnitude to provide highly reliable or highly complete AGN samples for fainter WISE sources. In particular, we define a color-magnitude cut that finds 130 ± 4 deg-2 AGN candidates for W2 < 17.11 with 90% reliability. Using the extensive UV through mid-IR broadband photometry available in this field, we study the spectral energy distributions of WISE AGN candidates. We find that, as expected, the WISE AGN selection can identify highly obscured AGNs, but that it is biased toward objects where the AGN dominates the bolometric luminosity output. We study the distribution of reddening in the AGN sample and discuss a formalism to account for sample incompleteness based on the step-wise maximum-likelihood method of Efstathiou et al. The resulting dust obscuration distributions depend strongly on AGN luminosity, consistent with the trend expected for a receding torus. At L AGN ∼ 3 × 1044 erg s-1, 29% ± 7% of AGNs are observed as Type 1, while at ∼4 × 1045 erg s-1 the fraction is 64% ± 13%. The distribution of obscuration values suggests that dust in the torus is present as both a diffuse medium and in optically thick clouds. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Authors & Co-Authors
Assef, Roberto J.
United States, Pasadena
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Stern, Daniel K.
United States, Pasadena
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Kochanek, Christopher S.
United States, Columbus
The Ohio State University
Blain, Andrew W.
United Kingdom, Leicester
University of Leicester
Brodwin, Mark
United States, Kansas City
University of Missouri-kansas City
Brown, Michael J.I.
Australia, Clayton
Monash University
Donoso, E.
United States, Pasadena
California Institute of Technology
Argentina, San Juan
Instituto de Ciencias Astronómicas de la Tierra y Del Espacio Icate
Eisenhardt, Peter R.M.
United States, Pasadena
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jannuzi, Buell T.
United States, Tucson
The University of Arizona
Jarrett, Thomas H.
United States, Pasadena
California Institute of Technology
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
Stanford, Spencer Adam
United States, Davis
University of California, Davis
United States, Livermore
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Tsai, Chaowei
United States, Pasadena
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Wu, Jingwen
United States, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
Yan, Lin
United States, Pasadena
California Institute of Technology
Statistics
Citations: 252
Authors: 14
Affiliations: 12
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1088/0004-637X/772/1/26
ISSN:
0004637X
e-ISSN:
15384357
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Quantitative