Using the Bright Ultra-Hard XMM-Newton Survey to define an IR selection of luminous AGN based on WISE colours

TL;DR

This paper develops a reliable mid-infrared color selection method for luminous AGN using WISE data, based on a large X-ray survey, achieving high completeness and efficiency especially for high-luminosity AGN.

Contribution

The study introduces a new MIR color wedge for AGN selection that accounts for photometric errors and SED deviations, validated with the extensive BUXS X-ray survey data.

Findings

Achieves 97.1% completeness for high-luminosity type-1 AGN

Identifies 2755 AGN candidates with high reliability in WISE data

Including the 22um band does not improve selection due to depth and star formation contamination.

Abstract

We present a highly complete and reliable mid-infrared (MIR) colour selection of luminous AGN candidates using the 3.4, 4.6, and 12 um bands of the WISE survey. The MIR colour wedge was defined using the wide-angle Bright Ultra-Hard XMM-Newton Survey (BUXS), one of the largest complete flux-limited samples of bright (f(4.5-10 keV)>6x10^{-14} erg cm^-2 s^-1) "ultra-hard" (4.5-10 keV) X-ray selected AGN to date. BUXS includes 258 objects detected over a total sky area of 44.43 deg^2 of which 251 are spectroscopically identified and classified, with 145 being type-1 AGN and 106 type-2 AGN. Our technique is designed to select objects with red MIR power-law spectral energy distributions (SED) in the three shortest bands of WISE and properly accounts for the errors in the photometry and deviations of the MIR SEDs from a pure power-law. The completeness of the MIR selection is a strong function of luminosity. At L(2-10 keV)>10^{44} erg s^-1, where the AGN is expected to dominate the MIR emission, 97.1_{-4.8}^{+2.2}% and 76.5_{-18.4}^{+13.3}% of the BUXS type-1 and type-2 AGN meet the selection. Our technique shows one of the highest reliability and efficiency of detection of the X-ray selected luminous AGN population with WISE amongst those in the literature. In the area covered by the BUXS survey our selection identifies 2755 AGN candidates detected with SNR>5 in the three shorter wavelength bands of WISE with 38.5% having a detection at 2-10 keV X-ray energies. We also analyzed the possibility of including the 22um WISE band to select AGN candidates, but neither the completeness nor the reliability of the selection improves. This is likely due to both the significantly shallower depth at 22um compared with the first three bands of WISE and star-formation contributing to the 22um emission at the WISE 22um sensitivity.