Department of Physics and Astronomy: Publications and Other Research

 

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2018

Citation

The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 238:37 (25pp)

Comments

© 2018. The American Astronomical Society.

https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/aadfd5

Abstract

We present medium-resolution spectra (R ~ 2000–4000) at 0.4–1.0 μm and 0.7–2.5 μm of 16 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) selected with red color in the near-infrared (NIR) of JK > 2.0 mag at z ~ 0.3. We fit the Hβ, Hα, Pβ, and Pα lines from these spectra to obtain their luminosities and line widths. We derive the E(BV) color excess values of the NIR-red AGNs using two methods, one based on the line-luminosity ratios and another based on the continuum slopes. The two E(BV) values agree with each other at rms dispersion ∼0.249. About half of the NIR-red AGNs have g′ − K < 5 magnitude, and we find that these NIR-red, but blue in optical-NIR AGNs, have E(BV) ~ 0, suggesting that a significant fraction of the NIR color-selected red AGNs are unobscured or only mildly obscured. After correcting for the dust extinction, we estimate the black hole (BH) masses and the bolometric luminosities of the NIR-red AGNs using the Paschen lines to calculate their Eddington ratios (λEdd). The median Eddington ratios of nine NIR-red AGNs (log(λEdd) ≃ -0.654 ± 0.176) are only mildly higher than those of unobscured type 1 AGNs (log(λEdd) ≃ -0.961 ± 0.008). Moreover, we find that the MBH–σ* relation for three NIR-red AGNs is consistent with that of unobscured type 1 AGNs at similar redshift. These results suggest that the NIR-red color selection alone is not effective at picking up dusty, intermediate-stage AGNs.

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