Turin-SyCAT: A multifrequency catalog of Seyfert galaxies

Abstract

Aims. We present the first release of Turin-SyCAT, a multifrequency catalog of Seyfert galaxies. Methods. We selected Seyfert galaxies considering criteria based on radio, infrared, and optical properties and starting from sources belonging to hard X-ray catalogs and surveys. We visually inspected optical spectra available for all selected sources. We adopted homogeneous and stringent criteria in the source selection aiming at reducing the possible contamination from other source classes. Results. Our final catalog includes 351 Seyfert galaxies distinguished in 233 type 1 and 118 type 2. Type 1 Seyfert galaxies appear to have mid-IR colors similar to blazars, but are distinguished from them by their radio-loudness. Additionally, Seyfert 2 galaxies have mid-IR colors more similar to quasars than BL Lac objects. As expected from their spectral properties, type 1 and 2 Seyfert galaxies show a clear distinction when using the u − r color. Finally, we found a tight correlation between the mid-IR fluxes at both 12 and 22 μm (i.e., F12 and F22, respectively) and hard X-ray fluxes between 15 and 150 keV. Both Seyfert types appear to follow the same trend and share similar values of the ratios of F12 and F22 to FHX in agreement with expectations of the AGN unification scenario. Conclusions. As future perspectives, the Turin-SyCAT will then be used to search for heavily obscured Seyfert galaxies among unidentified hard X-ray sources, given the correlation between mid-IR and hard X-rays, and to investigate their large-scale environments.