The Nature of Luminous X-ray Sources with Mid-Infrared Counterparts

A. Alonso-Herrero, P. G. Perez-Gonzalez, J. Rigby, G. H. Rieke, E. Le Floc'h, P. Barmby, M. J. Page, C. Papovich, H. Dole, E. Egami, J.-S. Huang, D. Rigopoulou, D. Cristobal-Hornillos, C. Eliche-Moral, M. Balcells, M. Prieto, P. Erwin, C. W. Engelbracht, K. D. Gordon, M. Werner, S. P. Willner, G. G. Fazio, D. Frayer, D. Hines, D. Kelly, W. Latter, K. Misselt, S. Miyazaki, J. Morrison, M. J. Rieke, & G. Wilson 2004, ApJS, 154, 155

We investigate the luminous X-ray sources in the Lockman Hole (LH) and the Extended Groth Strip (EGS) detected at 24microns using MIPS and also with IRAC on board Spitzer. We assemble optical/infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for 45 X-ray/24micron sources in the EGS and LH. Only about 1/4 of the hard X-ray/24micron sources show pure type 1 AGN SEDs. More than half of the X-ray/24micron sources have stellar-emission-dominated or obscured SEDs, similar to those of local type 2 AGN and spiral/starburst galaxies. One-third of the sources detected in hard X-rays do not have a 24micron counterpart. Two such sources in the LH have SEDs resembling those of S0/elliptical galaxies. The broad variety of SEDs in the optical-to-Spitzer bands of X-ray selected AGN means that AGN selected according to the behavior in the optical/infrared will have to be supplemented by other kinds of data (e.g., X-ray) to produce unbiased samples of AGN.

[XXX/astro-ph Preprint] [ADS Entry]

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