Discovery of 5000 Active Galactic Nuclei behind the Magellanic Clouds

Abstract

We show that using mid-IR color selection to find active galactic nuclei (AGN) is as effective in dense stellar fields such as the Magellanic Clouds as it is in extragalactic fields with low stellar densities using comparisons between the Spitzer Deep, Wide-Field Survey data for the NOAO Deep Wide Field Survey Bootes region and the SAGE Survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud. We use this to build high purity catalogs of ~ 5000 AGN candidates behind the Magellanic Clouds. Once confirmed, these quasars will expand the available astrometric reference sources for the Clouds and the numbers of quasars with densely sampled, long-term (>decade) monitoring light curves by well over an order of magnitude and potentially identify sufficiently bright quasars for absorption line studies of the interstellar medium of the Clouds.

published in ApJ, 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, 2 catalogs included in the source file

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• Quasar Selection Based on Photometric Variability
• Mid-Infrared Variability from the Spitzer Deep, Wide-Field Survey
• A Deep Chandra Observation of the Giant HII Region N11 I. X-ray Sources in the Field