IR measurement of quasar obscuration

Here we attempt to measure this fraction as a function of luminosity by studying the ratio of mid-infrared to intrinsic nuclear bolometric luminosity in unobscured AGNs. Because the mid-infrared is created by dust reprocessing of shorter wavelength nuclear light, this ratio is a diagnostic of f_obsc_, the fraction of solid angle around the nucleus covered by obscuring matter.

In order to eliminate possible redshift dependences while also achieving a large dynamic range in luminosity, we have collected archival 24um MIPS photometry from objects with z~1 in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR5, the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, and the Cosmic Evolution Survey. To measure the bolometric luminosity for each object, we used archival optical data supplemented by GALEX data.