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

Abstract

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_{\ast }>10^{9.5}{M}_{\odot }$) at $z\sim$0--4, an extended sample of 86 AGN {\it candidates} in low-mass galaxies ($M_{\ast }<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 $L_{\mathrm{AGN},\mathrm{bol}}\sim 10^{10}{L}_{\odot }$ to $10^{11}{L}_{\odot }$ and then drops towards higher luminosity. Additionally, the obscured AGN fraction gradually increases from $z\sim 0$ to $z\sim 4$ 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.

Accepted for publication in ApJ. 33 pages, 21 figures, 3 tables

References in corpus (53)

• The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis modeling I: The relevance of uncertain aspects of stellar evolution and the IMF to the derived physical properties of galaxies
• EAZY: A Fast, Public Photometric Redshift Code
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: I. Galaxy Mergers & Quasar Activity
• The Co-Evolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Insights from Surveys of the Contemporary Universe
• The synthesis of the cosmic X-ray background in the Chandra and XMM-Newton era
• The Hubble Ultra Deep Field
• Stellar Population Inference with Prospector
• Active Galactic Nuclei: what's in a name?
• The stellar mass assembly of galaxies from z=0 to z=4. Analysis of a sample selected in the rest-frame near-infrared with Spitzer
• The Chandra Deep Field-South Survey: 7 Ms Source Catalogs
• A CEERS Discovery of an Accreting Supermassive Black Hole 570 Myr after the Big Bang: Identifying a Progenitor of Massive z > 6 Quasars
• Metallicity Effects on Dust Properties in Starbursting Galaxies
• Obscuration-dependent evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei
• GA-NIFS: A massive black hole in a low-metallicity AGN at $z\sim 5.55$ revealed by JWST/NIRSpec IFS
• The WISE AGN Catalog
• Reverberation mapping of Active Galactic Nuclei: from X-ray corona to dusty torus
• Spitzer's Contribution to the AGN Population
• The faint radio sky: radio astronomy becomes mainstream
• The Evolution of Obscuration in AGN
• Dust inflated accretion disc as the origin of the Broad Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The X-Ray to Mid-Infrared Relation of AGN at High Luminosity
• The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field surveys: Data release II
• Revisiting the relationship between 6 μm and 2-10 keV continuum luminosities of AGN
• The Chandra COSMOS legacy survey: Energy Spectrum of the Cosmic X-ray Background and constraints on undetected populations
• CEERS Key Paper VI: JWST/MIRI Uncovers a Large Population of Obscured AGN at High Redshifts
• Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy of Lensed Galaxies at 1<z<3: The Nature of Sources Near the MIPS Confusion Limit
• Mid-Infrared Colors of Dwarf Galaxies: Young Starbursts Mimicking Active Galactic Nuclei
• Modeling Dust and Starlight in Galaxies Observed by Spitzer and Herschel: The KINGFISH Sample
• Dust-Deficient Palomar-Green Quasars and the Diversity of AGN Intrinsic IR Emission
• AGN Selection and Demographics in GOODS-S/HUDF from X-ray to Radio
• The Intrinsic Far-infrared Continua of Type-1 Quasars
• The MOSDEF Survey: Metallicity Dependence of the PAH Emission at High Redshift and Implications for 24 micron-inferred IR Luminosities and Star Formation Rates at z~2
• Optimized Photometric Redshifts for the Cosmic Assembly Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS)
• SDSS-IV eBOSS Spectroscopy of X-ray and WISE AGN in Stripe 82X: Overview of the Demographics of X-ray and Mid-Infrared Selected Active Galactic Nuclei
• The quantum efficiency and diffractive image artifacts of Si:As IBC mid-IR detector arrays at 5 $-$ 10 $\mu$m: Implications for the JWST/MIRI detectors
• Black hole obscuration and duty cycles mediated by AGN feedback in high redshift galaxies
• Infrared Spectral Energy Distribution and Variability of Active Galactic Nuclei: Clues to the Structure of Circumnuclear Material
• The ASTRODEEP-GS43 catalogue: new photometry and redshifts for the CANDELS GOODS-South field
• HYPerluminous quasars at the Epoch of ReionizatION (HYPERION). A new regime for the X-ray nuclear properties of the first quasars
• MIRI/JWST observations reveal an extremely obscured starburst in the z=6.9 system SPT0311-58
• A New Infrared Criterion for Selecting Active Galactic Nuclei to Lower Luminosities
• Do Some AGN Lack X-ray Emission?
• Near-Infrared Coronal Line Observations of Dwarf Galaxies hosting AGN-driven Outflows
• Robust Identification of Active Galactic Nuclei through HST Optical Variability in GOODS-S: Comparison with the X-ray and mid-IR Selected Samples
• A Chandra and HST View of WISE-Selected AGN Candidates in Dwarf Galaxies
• Dependence of the IRX-$\beta$ dust attenuation relation on metallicity and environment
• NuSTAR Observations of AGN with Low Observed X-ray to [OIII] Luminosity Ratios: Heavily Obscured AGN or Turned-Off AGN?
• Relics of Supermassive Black Hole Seeds: The Discovery of an Accreting Black Hole in an Optically Normal, Low Metallicity Dwarf Galaxy
• IR SED and Dust Masses of Sub-solar Metallicity Galaxies at z~2.3
• NuSTAR Observations of Intrinsically X-ray Weak Quasar Candidates: An Obscuration-Only Scenario
• The Obscured Fraction of Quasars at Cosmic Noon
• Characterizing the WISE-selected Heavily Obscured Quasar Population with Optical Spectroscopy from the Southern African Large Telescope
• Polar Dust Emission in Quasar IR SEDs and Its Correlation with Narrow Line Regions

Cited by in corpus (30)

• JADES: A large population of obscured, narrow line AGN at high redshift
• JADES -- The Rosetta Stone of JWST-discovered AGN: deciphering the intriguing nature of early AGN
• Little Red Dots: Rapidly Growing Black Holes Reddened by Extended Dusty Flows
• GA-NIFS: High number of dual active galactic nuclei at z~3
• A new census of dust and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at z=0.7-2 with JWST MIRI
• Photometric detection at $7.7\mu \mathrm{m}$ of a galaxy beyond redshift $14$ with JWST/MIRI
• JWST MIRI Flight Performance: Imaging
• Narrow line AGN selection in CEERS: spectroscopic selection, physical properties, X-ray and radio analysis
• No evidence for a significant evolution of $M_{\bullet }$-$M_{\ast }$ relation in massive galaxies up to z$\sim$4
• GA-NIFS: JWST/NIRSpec IFS view of the z~3.5 galaxy GS5001 and its close environment at the core of a large-scale overdensity
• Hitting the slopes: A spectroscopic view of UV continuum slopes of galaxies reveals a reddening at z > 9.5
• Spectral Uniformity of Little Red Dots: A Natural Outcome of Coevolving Seed Black Holes and Nascent Starbursts
• Surveying the onset and evolution of supermassive black holes at high-z with AXIS
• JADES Data Release 4 Paper I: Sample Selection, Observing Strategy and Redshifts of the complete spectroscopic sample
• Halfway to the Peak: The JWST MIRI 5.6 micron number counts and source population
• BASS. XLIX. Characterization of highly luminous and obscured AGNs: local X-ray and [NeV]$\lambda$3426 emission in comparison with the high-redshift Universe
• Prospects for Observing High-redshift Radio-loud Quasars in the SKA Era: Paving the Way for 21-cm Forest Observations
• What is the nature of Little Red Dots and what is not, MIRI SMILES edition
• WISE2MBH: A scaling-based algorithm for probing supermassive black hole masses through WISE catalogues
• The Importance of Dust Distribution in Ionizing-photon Escape: NIRCam and MIRI Imaging of a Lyman Continuum-emitting Galaxy at z ~ 3.8
• Reconciling PTA and JWST and preparing for LISA with POMPOCO: a Parametrisation Of the Massive black hole POpulation for Comparison to Observations
• Extreme Neutral Outflow in a non-AGN Quiescent Galaxy at z~1.3
• PEARLS: Discovery of Point-Source Features Within Galaxies in the North Ecliptic Pole Time Domain Field
• Identifying Compton-thick active galactic nuclei in the COSMOS. II. Searching among mid-infrared selected AGNs
• Mid-infrared Variability-based AGN Selection using the Multi-epoch Photometric Data from WISE
• Flavor Matters, but Matter Flavors: Matter Effects on Flavor Composition of Astrophysical Neutrinos
• MIDIS: Quantifying the AGN component of X-ray-detected galaxies
• Exploring the halo occupation distribution for moderate X-ray luminosity active galactic nuclei in the EAGLE cosmological simulation
• Identification of high-redshift X-ray active galactic nuclei in the 4XMM-DR11 serendipitous catalogue using DES data: Comparative analysis with optically-selected QSOs
• JWST MIRI color classification of mid-infrared selected galaxies: MIRI color classification toward cosmic noon