No Arabic abstract
We present an all-sky sample of ~ 1.4 million AGNs meeting a two color infrared photometric selection criteria for AGNs as applied to sources from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer final catalog release (AllWISE). We assess the spatial distribution and optical properties of our sample and find that the results are consistent with expectations for AGNs. These sources have a mean density of ~ 38 AGNs per square degree on the sky, and their apparent magnitude distribution peaks at g ~ 20, extending to objects as faint as g ~ 26. We test the AGN selection criteria against a large sample of optically-identified stars and determine the leakage (that is, the probability that a star detected in an optical survey will be misidentified as a QSO in our sample) rate to be < 4.0 x 10^-5. We conclude that our sample contains almost no optically-identified stars (< 0.041%), making this sample highly promising for future celestial reference frame work by significantly increasing the number of all-sky, compact extragalactic objects. We further compare our sample to catalogs of known AGNs/QSOs and find a completeness value of > 84% (that is, the probability of correctly identifying a known AGN/QSO is at least 84%) for AGNs brighter than a limiting magnitude of R < 19. Our sample includes approximately 1.1 million previously uncatalogued AGNs.
Using data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) we show that the mid infrared (MIR) colors of low-luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs) are significanlty different from those of post-asymptotic giant branch stars (PAGBs). This is due to a difference in spectral energy distribution (SEDs), the LLAGNs showing a flat component due to an AGN. Consistent with this interpretation we show that in a MIR color-color diagram the LINERs and the Seyfert~2s follow a power law with specific colors that allow to distinguish them from each other, and from star forming galaxies, according to their present level of star formation. Based on this result we present a new diagnostic diagram in the MIR that confirms the classification obtained in the optical using standard diagnostic diagrams, clearly identifying LINERs and LLAGNs as genuine AGNs.
We present a mid-infrared Tully-Fisher (TF) relation using photometry from the 3.4-micron W1 band of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite. The WISE TF relation is formed from 568 galaxies taken from the all-sky 2MASS Tully-Fisher (2MTF) galaxy catalog, spanning a range of environments including field, group, and cluster galaxies. This constitutes the largest mid-infrared TF relation constructed, to date. After applying a number of corrections to galaxy magnitudes and line widths, we measure a master TF relation given by M_corr = -22.24 - 10.05[log(W_corr) - 2.5], with an average dispersion of sigma_WISE = 0.686 magnitudes. There is some tension between WISE TF and a preliminary 3.6-micron relation, which has a shallower slope and almost no intrinsic dispersion. However, our results agree well with a more recent relation constructed from a large sample of cluster galaxies. We additionally compare WISE TF to the near-infrared 2MTF template relations, finding a good agreement between the TF parameters and total dispersions of WISE TF and the 2MTF K-band template. This fact, coupled with typical galaxy colors of (K - W1) ~ 0, suggests that these two bands are tracing similar stellar populations, including the older, centrally-located stars in the galactic bulge which can (for galaxies with a prominent bulge) dominate the light profile.
We determine the 22$mu$m luminosity evolution and luminosity function for quasars from a data set of over 20,000 objects obtained by combining flux-limited Sloan Digital Sky Survey optical and Wide field Infrared Survey Explorer mid-infrared data. We apply methods developed in previous works to access the intrinsic population distributions non-parametrically, taking into account the truncations and correlations inherent in the data. We find that the population of quasars exhibits positive luminosity evolution with redshift in the mid-infrared, but with considerably less mid-infrared evolution than in the optical or radio bands. With the luminosity evolutions accounted for, we determine the density evolution and local mid-infrared luminosity function. The latter displays a sharp flattening at local luminosities below $sim 10^{31}$ erg sec$^{-1}$ Hz$^{-1}$, which has been reported previously at 15 $mu$m for AGN classified as both type-1 and type-2. We calculate the integrated total emission from quasars at 22 $mu$m and find it to be a small fraction of both the cosmic infrared background light and the integrated emission from all sources at this wavelength.
We present an analysis of nine years of Catalina Surveys optical photometry for 1.4 million spectroscopically confirmed SDSS galaxies. We find 717 outburst events that were not reported by ongoing transient surveys. These events have timescales ranging from weeks to years. More than two thirds of these new events are found in starforming galaxies, while such galaxies only constitute ~20% of our sample. Based on the properties of the hosts and events, we find that almost all of the new events are likely to be associated with regular supernovae. However, a small number of long-timescale events are found among the galaxies containing AGN. These events have similar properties to those recently found in the analyses of light curves of large samples of AGN. Given the lack of such events among the more than a million passive galaxies in the sample, we suggest that the long outbursts are associated with super-massive black holes or their environments.
We present accurate resolved $WISE$ photometry of galaxies in the combined SINGS and KINGFISH sample. The luminosities in the W3 12$mu$m and W4 23$mu$m bands are calibrated to star formation rates (SFRs) derived using the total infrared luminosity, avoiding UV/optical uncertainties due to dust extinction corrections. The W3 relation has a 1-$sigma$ scatter of 0.15 dex over nearly 5 orders of magnitude in SFR and 12$mu$m luminosity, and a range in host stellar mass from dwarf (10$^7$ M$_odot$) to $sim3times$M$_star$ (10$^{11.5}$ M$_odot$) galaxies. In the absence of deep silicate absorption features and powerful active galactic nuclei, we expect this to be a reliable SFR indicator chiefly due to the broad nature of the W3 band. By contrast the W4 SFR relation shows more scatter (1-$sigma =$ 0.18 dex). Both relations show reasonable agreement with radio continuum-derived SFRs and excellent accordance with so-called hybrid H$alpha + 24 mu$m and FUV$+$24$mu$m indicators. Moreover, the $WISE$ SFR relations appear to be insensitive to the metallicity range in the sample. We also compare our results with IRAS-selected luminous infrared galaxies, showing that the $WISE$ relations maintain concordance, but systematically deviate for the most extreme galaxies. Given the all-sky coverage of $WISE$ and the performance of the W3 band as a SFR indicator, the $L_{12mu rm m}$ SFR relation could be of great use to studies of nearby galaxies and forthcoming large area surveys at optical and radio wavelengths.