Red AGN Search Criteria
Uniform all-sky photometry of 2MASS provides basis to search for and characterize a population of obscured or intrinsically red AGN
95% of known optical/UV/radio-selected QSOs have J-Ks < 2.0
2MASS Red AGN candidate selection
- 3 band detection, J-Ks > 2
- |b|ᡖo, exclude SMC/LMC to avoid AGB stars
- 20,400 deg2
- 16,997 candidates
- Brightest candidates are high-latitude AGB stars
- ɝ% are known AGN
Histograms of J-Ks color (from 2MASS) for (top-to-bottom) PG, northern and southern Hamburg, LBQS and FIRST Bright QSO samples