Mining the Infrared Sky for High-Redshift Quasars

The Spitzer and WISE satellites have opened up new avenues for the study of active galactic nuclei (AGN) by peering through the dust shrouding half (or more) of AGNs. However, despite being more sensitive to shrouded AGNs, current selection methods being used in the mid-IR are still largely blind to the highest redshift quasars-both those that are shrouded and those that are not (and should therefore be easy to find). We describe projects to identify both unobscured (at z>3) and obscured quasars (at z>2) that have heretofore been missed in significant numbers. Finding the high-z obscured quasars in large numbers is crucial for fulfilling the legacy of NASA missions in the IR and X-ray. With these quasars we will be able to perform clustering analyses that break the degeneracy of models describing how black holes can ``feed back" energy to the large-scale host galaxy, significantly influencing its evolution. We will further trace the luminosity function of galaxies undergoing active accretion from low-luminosity AGNs to luminous quasars—probing the growth of the supermassive black holes that we see today in the local universe. Our new insights come about from leveraging new Spitzer data, primarily from the PI's SpitzerIRAC Equatorial Survey (SpIES). The Spitzer data are 2.5 magnitudes deeper than the "AllWISE" survey in a 125 square degree, multiwavelength-rich, equatorial region known as SDSS "Stripe 82". These data are crucial for extending mid-IR investigations to higher redshifts, both for unobscured and obscured sources. The PI's team are among the world's experts in using the proposed machine learning techniques to find both unobscured (type-1) and obscured (type- 2) quasars and in using quasar clustering and luminosity functions to do cutting-edge science. The luminosity function and clustering algorithms are already in place, allowing for timely completion of this project once the multi-wavelength NASA data have been incorporated. This project is directly relevant to our understanding of the evolution of galaxies and to NASA's goal of better understanding the Universe. Moreover, NASA's data archive is crucial to the project: it is only by using data from Spitzer and WISE that will allow us to more fully understand the physics of quasars—by probing them at epochs where they are both most difficult to find, but also the most influential.