Confirming Near- to Mid-IR Photometrically-Identified Obscured AGNs in the JWST era
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866914081863106560 |
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| author | Rieke, George H. Sun, Yang Lyu, Jianwei Willmer, Christopher N. A. Zhu, Yongda Rinaldi, Pierluigi Stone, Meredith A. Hainline, Kevin N. Perez-Gonzalez, Pablo G. |
| author_facet | Rieke, George H. Sun, Yang Lyu, Jianwei Willmer, Christopher N. A. Zhu, Yongda Rinaldi, Pierluigi Stone, Meredith A. Hainline, Kevin N. Perez-Gonzalez, Pablo G. |
| contents | We evaluate the underlying assumptions for the identification of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) through near- and mid-infrared photometry and spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting out to z ~ 3. For massive galaxies, log(M) > 9.5, our high resolution spectra of the rest optical range generally confirm the results of SED fitting, which relies primarily on excesses above the stellar emission between 1 and 6 microns to identify AGN. However, the method is undermined if the redshift used for the SED fitting is incorrect. Low mass galaxies, log(M) < 9:5, can contain relatively warm dust that emits in the 4 - 6 micron range. We show that the potential contamination of AGN samples by purely star forming low-mass galaxies can be avoided by the use of the infrared properties of Haro 11 as a limiting star-forming SED template. However, relatively few star forming galaxies emit as strongly in the 3 - 6 micron range as this template, so this could result in missing some obscured AGNs to avoid a minor contamination. Including the behavior of the galaxies at rest lamda ~ 13.5 microns can mitigate this problem and yield more complete samples of bona fide AGN. JWST/MIRI supports this approach out to z ~ 0.6. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_07303 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Confirming Near- to Mid-IR Photometrically-Identified Obscured AGNs in the JWST era Rieke, George H. Sun, Yang Lyu, Jianwei Willmer, Christopher N. A. Zhu, Yongda Rinaldi, Pierluigi Stone, Meredith A. Hainline, Kevin N. Perez-Gonzalez, Pablo G. Astrophysics of Galaxies We evaluate the underlying assumptions for the identification of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) through near- and mid-infrared photometry and spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting out to z ~ 3. For massive galaxies, log(M) > 9.5, our high resolution spectra of the rest optical range generally confirm the results of SED fitting, which relies primarily on excesses above the stellar emission between 1 and 6 microns to identify AGN. However, the method is undermined if the redshift used for the SED fitting is incorrect. Low mass galaxies, log(M) < 9:5, can contain relatively warm dust that emits in the 4 - 6 micron range. We show that the potential contamination of AGN samples by purely star forming low-mass galaxies can be avoided by the use of the infrared properties of Haro 11 as a limiting star-forming SED template. However, relatively few star forming galaxies emit as strongly in the 3 - 6 micron range as this template, so this could result in missing some obscured AGNs to avoid a minor contamination. Including the behavior of the galaxies at rest lamda ~ 13.5 microns can mitigate this problem and yield more complete samples of bona fide AGN. JWST/MIRI supports this approach out to z ~ 0.6. |
| title | Confirming Near- to Mid-IR Photometrically-Identified Obscured AGNs in the JWST era |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.07303 |