The Southern 2MASS AGN Survey: spectroscopic follow-up with 6dF
  The Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) has provided a uniform photometric
catalog to search for previously unknown red AGN and QSOs. We have extended the
search to the southern equatorial sky by obtaining spectra for 1182 AGN
candidates using the 6dF multifibre spectrograph on the UK Schmidt Telescope.
These were scheduled as auxiliary targets for the 6dF Galaxy Redshift Survey.
The candidates were selected using a single color cut of J - Ks > 2 to Ks ~
15.5 and a galactic latitude of |b|>30 deg. 432 spectra were of sufficient
quality to enable a reliable classification. 116 sources (or ~27%) were
securely classified as type 1 AGN, 20 as probable type 1s, and 57 as probable
type 2 AGN. Most of them span the redshift range 0.05<z<0.5 and only 8 (or ~6%)
were previously identified as AGN or QSOs. Our selection leads to a
significantly higher AGN identification rate amongst local galaxies (>20%) than
in any previous galaxy survey. A small fraction of the type 1 AGN could have
their optical colors reddened by optically thin dust with A_V<2 mag relative to
optically selected QSOs. A handful show evidence for excess far-IR emission.
The equivalent width (EW) and color distributions of the type 1 and 2 AGN are
consistent with AGN unified models. In particular, the EW of the [OIII]
emission line weakly correlates with optical--near-IR color in each class of
AGN, suggesting anisotropic obscuration of the AGN continuum. Overall, the
optical properties of the 2MASS red AGN are not dramatically different from
those of optically-selected QSOs. Our near-IR selection appears to detect the
most near-IR luminous QSOs in the local universe to z~0.6 and provides
incentive to extend the search to deeper near-IR surveys.
