The Spectral Energy Distributions of Red 2MASS AGN

Abstract

We present infrared (IR) to X-ray spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for 44 red AGN selected from the 2MASS survey on the basis of their red J-K${}_S$ color (>2 mag) and later observed by Chandra. In comparison with optically-, radio-, and X-ray selected AGN, their median SEDs are red in the optical and near-IR with little/no blue bump. It thus seems that near-IR color selection isolates the reddest subset of AGN that can be classified optically. The shape of the SEDs is generally consistent with modest absorption by gas (in the X-ray) and dust (in the optical-IR). The levels of obscuration, estimated from X-rays, far-IR and our detailed optical/near-IR color modeling are all consistent implying N_H < few*10^{22} cm^{-2}. We present SED models that show how the AGN optical/near-IR colors change due to differing amounts of reddening, AGN to host galaxy ratio, redshift and scattered light emission and apply them to the sources in the sample. We find that the 2MASS AGN optical color, B-R, and to a lesser extent the near-IR color, J-K${}_S$, are strongly affected by reddening, host galaxy emission, redshift, and in few, highly polarized objects, also by scattered AGN light. The obscuration/inclination of the AGN allows us to see weaker emission components which are generally swamped by the AGN.

52 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (9)

• The synthesis of the cosmic X-ray background in the Chandra and XMM-Newton era
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog IV. Fifth Data Release
• Multiwavelength study of massive galaxies at z~2. II. Widespread Compton thick AGN and the concurrent growth of black holes and bulges
• Unveiling obscured accretion in the Chandra Deep Field South
• Optical spectroscopy and X-ray detections of a sample of quasars and AGN selected in the mid-infrared from two Spitzer wide-area surveys
• Chandra and Spitzer unveil heavily obscured quasars in the SWIRE/Chandra Survey
• Type II Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: V. Imaging host galaxies with the Hubble Space Telescope
• PCA of the spectral energy distribution and emission line properties of red 2MASS AGN
• Comparison of high and low state X-ray spectra in the Type 1 QSO 2MASS 0918+2117

Cited by in corpus (17)

• The 105 month Swift-BAT all-sky hard X-ray survey
• The 22-Month Swift-BAT All-Sky Hard X-ray Survey
• The New Generation Atlas of Quasar Spectral Energy Distributions from Radio to X-rays
• Revealing the heavily obscured AGN population of High Redshift 3CRR Sources with Chandra X-ray Observations
• X-ray properties of the Youngest Radio Sources and their Environments
• PCA of the spectral energy distribution and emission line properties of red 2MASS AGN
• Evolution of Lyman Alpha Galaxies: Stellar Populations at z ~ 0.3
• Correlation between X-ray and radio absorption in compact radio galaxies
• The HELLAS2XMM survey. XIII. Multi-component analysis of the spectral energy distribution of obscured AGN
• The OPTX Project III: X-ray versus Optical Spectral Type for AGNs
• On the nature of the red, 2MASS selected AGN in the local Universe I: an optical spectroscopic study
• Peering through the dust II: $XMM-Newton$ observations of two additional FIRST-2MASS red quasars
• Beyond Simple AGN Unification with Chandra-observed 3CRR Sources
• The SWIRE/Chandra Survey: The X-ray Sources
• Reddening and He I* $\lambda 10830$ Absorption Lines in Three Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• The Southern 2MASS AGN Survey: spectroscopic follow-up with 6dF
• Investigating the complex X-ray spectrum of a broad-line 2MASS red quasar: XMM-Newton observation of FTM 0830+3759