The MIRI Early Obscured-AGN Wide Survey (MEOW): A Population of Hidden AGN at $z \gtrsim 5$ Revealed by JWST/MIRI Imaging

Gene C. K. Leung, Anna-Christina Eilers, Ryan Endsley, Steven L. Finkelstein, Micaela B. Bagley, Guillermo Barro, Anton M. Koekemoer, Pablo G. Pérez-González, Nor Pirzkal, Bren E. Backhaus, Teodora-Elena Bulichi, Jaclyn B. Champagne, Katherine Chworowsky, Nikko J. Cleri, Mark Dickinson, Xiaohui Fan, Seiji Fujimoto, Norman A. Grogin, Allison Kirkpatrick, Dale D. Kocevski, Vasily Kokorev, Rebecca L. Larson, Ray A. Lucas, Fabio Pacucci, Casey Papovich, Anthony J. Taylor, Natalia C. Villanueva, Guang Yang

First listed 2026-07-07 | Last updated 2026-07-07

Abstract

Short digest

This paper presents MEOW, a JWST/MIRI F1000W plus F2100W imaging survey over 95 arcmin^2 in GOODS-N and GOODS-S designed to uncover dust-obscured AGN at early cosmic times. From SED modeling that combines the new MIRI data with archival HST, NIRCam, and SCUBA-2 photometry, the authors identify 16 MIRI-selected AGN at z = 4.5-7.2, including 12 newly identified systems and at least five narrow-line AGN that broad-line spectroscopic searches would miss. The key result is that the z = 4.5-6 MIRI-selected AGN bolometric luminosity function has number densities comparable to broad-line AGN and little red dots, implying that obscured accretion is a major part of the high-redshift AGN census. The sample also shows heterogeneous host extinction and mid-IR behavior, pointing to both circumnuclear and galaxy-scale obscuration as contributors to early black-hole growth in hidden phases.

Key figures to inspect

• Figure 3. Use this figure to show what the MEOW high-redshift AGN sample actually is: 16 sources at z > 4.5, the split between spectroscopic and photometric redshifts, and the strong overlap with FRESCO spectral coverage. It also foregrounds one of the paper's headline claims by indicating that 12 of the 16 AGN are new and that most objects in the relevant redshift windows already have spectroscopic confirmation.
• Figure 5. This is the clearest selection and physical-diagnostic figure because it links the MIRI color selection directly to AGN-like SED shapes. The color-color plane and rest-frame SED comparison show why the mid-infrared excess separates AGN from star-forming templates and makes the MIRI imaging powerful for finding obscured systems at z around 5 to 6.
• Figure 9. This is the conclusion-driving population figure. It demonstrates that the MEOW MIRI-selected AGN luminosity function at z = 4.5-6 is comparable in number density to broad-line AGN and LRD samples, which is the paper's main evidence that obscured AGN contribute substantially to the total early AGN census.
• Figure 10. This figure is the best compact summary of the obscuration physics inferred from the sample. By comparing host extinction distributions for broad-line and narrow-line AGN, it supports the paper's interpretation that the narrow-line objects span both circumnuclear obscuration and possible host-galaxy-scale dust attenuation.
• Figure 11. Include this figure to emphasize complementarity rather than redundancy with existing JWST broad-line searches. The small overlap between MIRI-selected AGN and the Matthee et al. broad-line sample makes the case that MEOW is recovering a largely distinct obscured population that standard broad-line selection misses.