AGN Selection and Demographics: A New Age with JWST/MIRI

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lyu, Jianwei, Alberts, Stacey, Rieke, George H., Shivaei, Irene, Perez-Gonzalez, Pablo G., Sun, Fengwu, Hainline, Kevin N., Baum, Stefi, Bonaventura, Nina, Bunker, Andrew J., Egami, Eiichi, Eisenstein, Daniel J., Florian, Michael, Ji, Zhiyuan, Johnson, Benjamin D., Morrison, Jane, Rieke, Marcia, Robertson, Brant, Rujopakarn, Wiphu, Tacchella, Sandro, Scholtz, Jan, Willmer, Christopher N. A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Lyu, Jianwei
Alberts, Stacey
Rieke, George H.
Shivaei, Irene
Perez-Gonzalez, Pablo G.
Sun, Fengwu
Hainline, Kevin N.
Baum, Stefi
Bonaventura, Nina
Bunker, Andrew J.
Egami, Eiichi
Eisenstein, Daniel J.
Florian, Michael
Ji, Zhiyuan
Johnson, Benjamin D.
Morrison, Jane
Rieke, Marcia
Robertson, Brant
Rujopakarn, Wiphu
Tacchella, Sandro
Scholtz, Jan
Willmer, Christopher N. A.
author_facet Lyu, Jianwei
Alberts, Stacey
Rieke, George H.
Shivaei, Irene
Perez-Gonzalez, Pablo G.
Sun, Fengwu
Hainline, Kevin N.
Baum, Stefi
Bonaventura, Nina
Bunker, Andrew J.
Egami, Eiichi
Eisenstein, Daniel J.
Florian, Michael
Ji, Zhiyuan
Johnson, Benjamin D.
Morrison, Jane
Rieke, Marcia
Robertson, Brant
Rujopakarn, Wiphu
Tacchella, Sandro
Scholtz, Jan
Willmer, Christopher N. A.
contents Understanding the co-evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host systems requires a comprehensive census of active galactic nuclei (AGN) behavior across a wide range of redshift, luminosity, obscuration level and galaxy properties. We report significant progress with JWST towards this goal from the Systematic Mid-infrared Instrument Legacy Extragalactic Survey (SMILES). Based on comprehensive SED analysis of 3273 MIRI-detected sources, we identify 217 AGN candidates over a survey area of $\sim$34 arcmin$^2$, including a primary sample of 111 AGNs in normal massive galaxies ($M_{*}>10^{9.5}~M_\odot$) at $z\sim$0--4, an extended sample of 86 AGN {\it candidates} in low-mass galaxies ($M_{*}<10^{9.5}~M_\odot$) and a high-$z$ sample of 20 AGN {\it candidates} at $z\sim$4--8.4. Notably, about 80\% of our MIRI-selected AGN candidates are new discoveries despite the extensive pre-JWST AGN searches. Even among the massive galaxies where the previous AGN search is believed to be thorough, 34\% of the MIRI AGN identifications are new, highlighting the impact of obscuration on previous selections. By combining our results with the efforts at other wavelengths, we build the most complete AGN sample to date and examine the relative performance of different selection techniques. We find the obscured AGN fraction increases from $L_{\rm AGN, bol}\sim10^{10}~L_\odot$ to $10^{11}~L_\odot$ and then drops towards higher luminosity. Additionally, the obscured AGN fraction gradually increases from $z\sim0$ to $z\sim4$ with most high-$z$ AGNs obscured. We discuss how AGN obscuration, intrinsic SED variations, galaxy contamination, survey depth and selection techniques complicate the construction of a complete AGN sample.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2310_12330
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle AGN Selection and Demographics: A New Age with JWST/MIRI
Lyu, Jianwei
Alberts, Stacey
Rieke, George H.
Shivaei, Irene
Perez-Gonzalez, Pablo G.
Sun, Fengwu
Hainline, Kevin N.
Baum, Stefi
Bonaventura, Nina
Bunker, Andrew J.
Egami, Eiichi
Eisenstein, Daniel J.
Florian, Michael
Ji, Zhiyuan
Johnson, Benjamin D.
Morrison, Jane
Rieke, Marcia
Robertson, Brant
Rujopakarn, Wiphu
Tacchella, Sandro
Scholtz, Jan
Willmer, Christopher N. A.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Understanding the co-evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host systems requires a comprehensive census of active galactic nuclei (AGN) behavior across a wide range of redshift, luminosity, obscuration level and galaxy properties. We report significant progress with JWST towards this goal from the Systematic Mid-infrared Instrument Legacy Extragalactic Survey (SMILES). Based on comprehensive SED analysis of 3273 MIRI-detected sources, we identify 217 AGN candidates over a survey area of $\sim$34 arcmin$^2$, including a primary sample of 111 AGNs in normal massive galaxies ($M_{*}>10^{9.5}~M_\odot$) at $z\sim$0--4, an extended sample of 86 AGN {\it candidates} in low-mass galaxies ($M_{*}<10^{9.5}~M_\odot$) and a high-$z$ sample of 20 AGN {\it candidates} at $z\sim$4--8.4. Notably, about 80\% of our MIRI-selected AGN candidates are new discoveries despite the extensive pre-JWST AGN searches. Even among the massive galaxies where the previous AGN search is believed to be thorough, 34\% of the MIRI AGN identifications are new, highlighting the impact of obscuration on previous selections. By combining our results with the efforts at other wavelengths, we build the most complete AGN sample to date and examine the relative performance of different selection techniques. We find the obscured AGN fraction increases from $L_{\rm AGN, bol}\sim10^{10}~L_\odot$ to $10^{11}~L_\odot$ and then drops towards higher luminosity. Additionally, the obscured AGN fraction gradually increases from $z\sim0$ to $z\sim4$ with most high-$z$ AGNs obscured. We discuss how AGN obscuration, intrinsic SED variations, galaxy contamination, survey depth and selection techniques complicate the construction of a complete AGN sample.
title AGN Selection and Demographics: A New Age with JWST/MIRI
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.12330