The MIXR sample: AGN activity versus star formation across the cross-correlation of WISE, 3XMM, and FIRST/NVSS

Understand

We cross-correlate the largest available Mid-Infrared (WISE), X-ray (3XMM) and Radio (FIRST+NVSS) catalogues to define the MIXR sample of AGN and star-forming galaxies.

• We pre-classify the sources based on their positions on the WISE colour/colour plot, showing that the MIXR triple selection is extremely effective to diagnose the star formation and AGN activity of individual populations, even on a flux/magnitude basis, extending the diagnostics to objects with luminosities and redshifts from SDSS DR12.
• We recover the radio/mid-IR star formation correlation with great accuracy, and use it to classify our sources, based on their activity, as radio-loud and radio-quiet AGN, LERGs/LINERs, and non-AGN galaxies.
• These diagnostics can prove extremely useful for large AGN and galaxy samples, and help develop ways to efficiently triage sources when data from the next generation of instruments becomes available.