Friday, December 04, 2009, Noon, Pratt Conference Room
Low Resolution SED Templates for AGN and Galaxies
from 0.03 to 30 microns
Roberto Assef, Ohio State University
| I will present a set of low resolution empirical SED templates for AGNs and galaxies in the wavelength range from 0.03 to 30 microns based on the multi-wavelength photometric observations of the NOAO Deep-Wide Field Survey Bootes field and the spectroscopic observations of the AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey. I will discuss 3 applications of our templates. First, we have used our templates to determine photometric redshifts for galaxies and AGNs. We find that while they are relatively accurate for galaxies, their accuracies for AGNs are a strong function of the luminosity ratio between their AGN and galaxy components. Second, we used our templates to study the mid-IR AGN selection criteria developed by Stern et al.(2005) and Lacy et al.(2004), and to study the color distribution of AGNs in the upcoming WISE mission. We propose an AGN color selection criteria for WISE that will identify 1,700,000 AGNs with relatively little contamination. Finally, we have studied the rest frame J-band luminosity function of mid-IR and X-ray selected AGNs between 0<5.85, where we have used our templates to model the selection functions and remove host contamination. We find that the QSO luminosity function shows strong signatures of down-sizing over this redshift range. Describing the data requires evolution in both the typical luminosity and density of the quasars. The peak in the activity of luminous quasars is at z=2.0. |
