{"work":{"id":"fd847ce2-9373-42c8-8314-53363fd80938","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W1958160734","doi":"10.1088/0004-637x/753/1/30","arxiv_id":"1205.0811","raw_key":null,"title":"Mid-Infrared Selection of AGN with the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer. I. Characterizing WISE-Selected AGN in COSMOS","authors":[{"given":"Daniel","family":"Stern","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Roberto J.","family":"Assef","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Dominic J.","family":"Benford","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Andrew","family":"Blain","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Roc","family":"Cutri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Arjun","family":"Dey","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Peter","family":"Eisenhardt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Roger L.","family":"Griffith","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"T. H.","family":"Jarrett","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Sean","family":"Lake","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Frank","family":"Masci","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Sara","family":"Petty","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"S. A.","family":"Stanford","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Chao-Wei","family":"Tsai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"E. L.","family":"Wright","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Lin","family":"Yan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Fiona","family":"Harrison","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Kristin","family":"Madsen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"authors_text":"Stern, D","year":2012,"venue":"astro-ph.CO","abstract":"The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is an extremely capable and efficient black hole finder. We present a simple mid-infrared color criterion, W1-W2 \\geq 0.8 (i.e., [3.4]-[4.6] \\geq 0.8, Vega), which identifies 61.9 \\pm 5.4 AGN candidates per deg2 to a depth of W2 = 15.0. This implies a much larger census of luminous AGN than found by typical wide-area surveys, attributable to the fact that mid-infrared selection identifies both unobscured (type 1) and obscured (type 2) AGN. Optical and soft X-ray surveys alone are highly biased towards only unobscured AGN, while this simple WISE selection likely identifies even heavily obscured, Compton-thick AGN. Using deep, public data in the COSMOS field, we explore the properties of WISE-selected AGN candidates. At the mid-infrared depth considered, 160 uJy at 4.6 microns, this simple criterion identifies 78% of Spitzer mid-infrared AGN candidates according to the criteria of Stern et al. (2005) and the reliability is 95%. We explore the demographics, multiwavelength properties and redshift distribution of WISE-selected AGN candidates in the COSMOS field.","external_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/1205.0811","cited_by_count":796,"metadata_source":"pith","metadata_fetched_at":"2026-07-10T19:27:32.185767+00:00","pith_arxiv_id":"1205.0811","created_at":"2026-05-08T17:53:51.868043+00:00","updated_at":"2026-07-11T11:50:26.030339+00:00","title_quality_ok":true,"display_title":"Mid-Infrared Selection of AGN with the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer. I. Characterizing WISE-Selected AGN in COSMOS","render_title":"Mid-Infrared Selection of AGN with the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer. I. Characterizing WISE-Selected AGN in COSMOS"},"hub":{"state":{"work_id":"fd847ce2-9373-42c8-8314-53363fd80938","tier":"hub","tier_reason":"10+ Pith inbound or 1,000+ external citations","pith_inbound_count":26,"external_cited_by_count":796,"distinct_field_count":3,"first_pith_cited_at":"2025-09-23T06:14:44+00:00","last_pith_cited_at":"2026-07-09T15:34:03+00:00","author_build_status":"not_needed","summary_status":"needed","contexts_status":"needed","graph_status":"needed","ask_index_status":"not_needed","reader_status":"not_needed","recognition_status":"not_needed","updated_at":"2026-08-22T00:49:36.624368+00:00","tier_text":"hub"},"tier":"hub","role_counts":[],"polarity_counts":[],"runs":{},"summary":{},"graph":{},"authors":[]}}