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Description
In this work, we investigate the dependence of the covering factor (CF) of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) on the mid-infrared (MIR) luminosity and the redshift. We constructed 12 and 22 {mu}m luminosity functions (LFs) at 0.006<=z<=0.3 using Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) data. Combining the WISE catalog (Cat. II/311) with Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS, Cat. II/294) spectroscopic data, we selected 223982 galaxies at 12 {mu}m and 25721 galaxies at 22 {mu}m for spectroscopic classification. We then identified 16355 AGNs at 12 {mu}m and 4683 AGNs at 22 {mu}m by their optical emission lines and cataloged classifications in the SDSS. Following that, we estimated the CF as the fraction of Type 2 AGN in all AGNs whose MIR emissions are dominated by the active nucleus (not their host galaxies) based on their MIR colors. We found that the CF decreased with increasing MIR luminosity, regardless of the choice of Type 2 AGN classification criteria, and the CF did not change significantly with redshift for z<=0.2. Furthermore, we carried out various tests to determine the influence of selection bias and confirmed that similar dependences exist, even when taking these uncertainties into account. The luminosity dependence of the CF can be explained by the receding torus model, but the "modified" receding torus model gives a slightly better fit, as suggested by Simpson.
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