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  • MID-INFRARED SELECTION OF A...
    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

    The Astrophysical journal, 07/2012, Letnik: 753, Številka: 1
    Journal Article

    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.