CEERS Key Paper VI: JWST/MIRI Uncovers a Large Population of Obscured AGN at High Redshifts

TL;DR

This study uses JWST/MIRI mid-infrared data from CEERS to identify a large, previously missed population of heavily obscured AGN at high redshifts, revealing their significant contribution to black hole growth.

Contribution

It demonstrates that JWST/MIRI can uncover heavily obscured AGN at high redshifts, surpassing X-ray surveys in detecting such populations and providing new insights into black hole growth history.

Findings

Identified 31 AGN and 111 mixed objects in 9 arcmin^2.

High-z BHAD is 0.5 dex higher than X-ray estimates.

MIRI detects heavily obscured AGN missed by X-ray surveys.

Abstract

Mid-infrared observations are powerful in identifying heavily obscured Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) which have weak emission in other wavelengths. Data from the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) onboard JWST provides an excellent opportunity to perform such studies. We take advantage of the MIRI imaging data from the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey (CEERS) to investigate the AGN population in the distant universe. We estimate the source properties of MIRI-selected objects by utilizing spectral energy distribution (SED) modelling, and classify them into star-forming galaxies (SF), SF-AGN mixed objects, and AGN. The source numbers of these types are 418, 111, and 31, respectively, from 4 MIRI pointings covering $\sim 9$ arcmin$^2$. The sample spans a redshift range of $\approx 0$--5. We derive the median SEDs for all three source types, respectively, and publicly release them. The median MIRI SED of AGN is similar to the typical SEDs of hot dust-obscured galaxies and Seyfert 2s, for which the mid-IR SEDs are dominantly from AGN-heated hot dust. Based on our SED-fit results, we estimate the black-hole accretion density (BHAD; i.e., total BH growth rate per comoving volume) as a function of redshift. At $z<3$, the resulting BHAD agrees with the X-ray measurements in general. At $z>3$, we identify a total of 27 AGN and SF-AGN mixed objects, leading to that our high-$z$ BHAD is substantially higher than the X-ray results ($\sim 0.5$ dex at $z \approx 3$--5). This difference indicates MIRI can identify a large population of heavily obscured AGN missed by X-ray surveys at high redshifts.