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Title: Identifying Active Galactic Nuclei at z ∼ 3 from the HETDEX Survey Using Machine Learning
Abstract We used data from the Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) to study the incidence of AGN in continuum-selected galaxies at z ∼ 3. From optical and infrared imaging in the 24 deg 2 Spitzer HETDEX Exploratory Large Area survey, we constructed a sample of photometric-redshift selected z ∼ 3 galaxies. We extracted HETDEX spectra at the position of 716 of these sources and used machine-learning methods to identify those which exhibited AGN-like features. The dimensionality of the spectra was reduced using an autoencoder, and the latent space was visualized through t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding. Gaussian mixture models were employed to cluster the encoded data and a labeled data set was used to label each cluster as either AGN, stars, high-redshift galaxies, or low-redshift galaxies. Our photometric redshift (photo z ) sample was labeled with an estimated 92% overall accuracy, an AGN accuracy of 83%, and an AGN contamination of 5%. The number of identified AGN was used to measure an AGN fraction for different magnitude bins. The ultraviolet (UV) absolute magnitude where the AGN fraction reaches 50% is M UV = −23.8. When combined with results in the literature, our measurements of AGN fraction imply that the bright end of the galaxy luminosity function exhibits a power law rather than exponential decline, with a relatively shallow faint-end slope for the z ∼ 3 AGN luminosity function.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1908817
NSF-PAR ID:
10454127
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Astronomical Journal
Volume:
165
Issue:
4
ISSN:
0004-6256
Page Range / eLocation ID:
153
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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