The spectral energy distributions of active galactic nuclei

Brown, MJI; Duncan, KJ; Landt, H; Kirk, M; Ricci, C; Kamraj, N; Salvato, M; Ananna, T

Abstract

We present spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of 41 active galactic nuclei, derived from multiwavelength photometry and archival spectroscopy. All of the SEDs span at least 0.09 to 30 μm, but in some instances wavelength coverage extends into the X-ray, far-infrared, and radio. For some active galactic nuclei (AGNs) we have fitted the measured far-infrared photometry with greybody models, while radio flux density measurements have been approximated by power laws or polynomials. We have been able to fill some of the gaps in the spectral coverage using interpolation or extrapolation of simple models. In addition to the 41 individual AGN SEDs, we have produced 72 Seyfert SEDs by mixing SEDs of the central regions of Seyferts with galaxy SEDs. Relative to the literature, our templates have broader wavelength coverage and/or higher spectral resolution. We have tested the utility of our SEDs by using them to generate photometric redshifts for 0 < z ≤ 6.12 AGNs in the Boötes field (selected with X-ray, IR, and optical criteria) and, relative to SEDs from the literature, they produce comparable or better photometric redshifts with reduced flux density residuals.

Citation

Brown, M., Duncan, K., Landt, H., Kirk, M., Ricci, C., Kamraj, N., …Ananna, T. (2019). The spectral energy distributions of active galactic nuclei. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 489(3), 3351-3367. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2324

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 6, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Aug 30, 2019
• Publication Date: Nov 30, 2019
• Deposit Date: Oct 25, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 28, 2019
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Print ISSN: 0035-8711
• Electronic ISSN: 1365-2966
• Publisher: Royal Astronomical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 489
• Issue: 3
• Article Number: 3351
• Pages: 3351-3367
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2324