Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• STERN, Daniel
• ASSEF, Roberto J
• MASCI, Frank
• PETTY, Sara
• STANFORD, S. A
• TSAI, Chao-Wei
• WRIGHT, E. L
• LIN YAN
• HARRISON, Fiona
• MADSEN, Kristin
• BENFORD, Dominic J
• BLAIN, Andrew
• CUTRI, Roc
• DEY, Arjun
• EISENHARDT, Peter
• GRIFFITH, Roger L
• JARRETT, T. H
• LAKE, Sean

Titel

MID-INFRARED SELECTION OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI WITH THE WIDE-FIELD INFRARED SURVEY EXPLORER. I. CHARACTERIZING WISE-SELECTED ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI IN COSMOS

Ist Teil von

• The Astrophysical journal, 2012-07, Vol.753 (1), p.1-18

Ort / Verlag

Bristol: IOP

Erscheinungsjahr

2012

Quelle

Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek - Frei zugängliche E-Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is an extremely capable and efficient black hole finder. We present a simple mid-infrared color criterion, W1 - W2 [> or =, slanted] 0.8 (i.e., [3.4] -[4.6] [> or =, slanted] 0.8, Vega), which identifies 61.9 + or - 5.4 active galactic nucleus (AGN) candidates per deg super(2) to a depth of W2 ~ 15.0. Uiis implies a much larger census of luminous AGNs than found by typical wide-area surveys, attributable to the fact that mid-infrared selection identifies both unobscured (type 1) and obscured (type 2) AGNs. Optical and soft X-ray surveys alone are highly biased toward only unobscured AGNs, while this simple WISE selection likely identifies even heavily obscured, Compton-thick AGNs. Using deep, public data in the COSMOS field, we explore the properties of WISE-selected AGN candidates. At the mid-infrared depth considered, 160 mu Jy at 4.6 mu m, this simple criterion identifies 78% of Spitzer mid-infrared AGN candidates according to the criteria of Stern et al. and the reliability is 95%. We explore the demographics, multiwavelength properties and redshift distribution of WISE-selected AGN candidates in the COSMOS field.