James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

Arxiv: Finding dusty AGNs from the JWST CEERS survey with mid-infrared photometry Published: 6/21/2024 9:19:12 AM Updated: 6/21/2024 9:19:12 AM

Paper abstract: The nature of the interaction between active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and theirhost galaxies remains an unsolved question. Therefore, conducting an AGN censusis valuable to AGN research. Nevertheless, a significant fraction of AGNs areobscured by their environment, which blocks UV and optical emissions due to thedusty torus surrounding the central supermassive black hole (SMBH). To overcomethis challenge, mid-infrared (IR) surveys have emerged as a valuable tool foridentifying obscured AGNs, as the obscured light is re-emitted in this range.With its high sensitivity, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) uncovered morefainter objects than previous telescopes. By applying the SED fitting, thiswork investigates AGN candidates in JWST Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science(CEERS) fields. We identified 42 candidates, 30 of them are classified ascomposites (0.2<= f_{\rm AGN, IR}< 0.5), and 12 of them are AGNs (f_{\rmAGN, IR}>= 0.5). We report the AGN luminosity contributions and AGN numberfractions as a function of redshift and total infrared luminosity, showing thatpreviously reported increasing relations are not apparent in our sample due tothe sample size. We also extend the previous results on ultra-luminous infraredgalaxies (ULIRGs, L_{\rm TIR}>= 10^{12} L_{\odot}) to less luminous AGNs,highlighting the power of JWST.