Active Galactic Nuclei in a Mid-Infrared Selected Galaxy Sample at z> 0.13:[Ne V] 3426 Line Emission as a Benchmark

ZJ Li, Y Dai, JS Huang, S Wuyts, TW Cao - arXiv preprint arXiv …, 2024 - arxiv.org
ZJ Li, Y Dai, JS Huang, S Wuyts, TW Cao
arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.03416, 2024arxiv.org
We present a 24 um-selected spectroscopic sample z> 0.13 (median z= 0.41) in the
Lockman Hole field, consisting of 4035 spectra. Our aim is to identify AGNs and determine
their fraction in this mid-infrared selected sample. In this work, we use the [Ne V] 3426
emission line to spectroscopically identify AGNs. Combined with broad-line Type I AGNs
selected in our previous study, our sample consists of 887 (22%) spectroscopically
confirmed AGNs. We perform a stacking analysis on the remaining spectra, and find that in …
We present a 24 um-selected spectroscopic sample z > 0.13 (median z = 0.41) in the Lockman Hole field, consisting of 4035 spectra. Our aim is to identify AGNs and determine their fraction in this mid-infrared selected sample. In this work, we use the [Ne V]3426 emission line to spectroscopically identify AGNs. Combined with broad-line Type I AGNs selected in our previous study, our sample consists of 887 (22%) spectroscopically confirmed AGNs. We perform a stacking analysis on the remaining spectra, and find that in various MIR-wedge-selected AGN candidates, the stacked spectra still show significant [Ne V]3426 emission, In contrast, no clear [Ne V]3426 signal is detected in non-AGN candidates falling outside the wedges. Assuming a range of AGN mid-IR SED slope of 0.3< alpha <0.7, and an average star-forming relation derived from 65 star-forming templates, we develop a robust method to separate the AGN and star-forming contributions to the mid-IR SEDs using the rest-frame L12 /L1.6 vs L4.5 /L1.6 diagram. We separate the objects into bins of L12 , and find that AGN fraction increases with increasing L12. We also find that the stacked [Ne V]3426 strength scales with L12 . The pure AGN luminosity at 12 um exhibits a positive correlation with the star formation rates, indicating possible co-evolution and common gas supply between the AGN and their host galaxies. Varying population properties across the redshift range explored contribute to the observed correlation.
arxiv.org