Candidate type II quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. II. From radio to X-rays

Type II quasars are luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs) whose central engines and broad-line regions are obscured by intervening material; such objects only recently have been discovered in appreciable numbers. We study the multiwavelength properties of 291 type II AGN candidates (0.3 < z < 0.8) selected on the basis of their optical emission-line properties from the spectroscopic database of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This sample includes about 150 objects luminous enough to be classified as type II quasars. We matched the sample to the FIRST (20 cm), IRAS (12 - 100 mum), 2MASS (JHK(s)), and RASS (0.1 - 2.4 keV) surveys. Roughly 10% of optically selected type II AGN candidates are radio-loud, comparable to the AGN population as a whole. About 40 objects are detected by IRAS at 60 and/or 100 mum, and the inferred mid/far-IR luminosities lie in the range nuL(nu) = 10(45)-3 x 10(46) ergs s(-1). Average IR - to -[O III] lambda5007 ratios of objects in our sample are consistent with those of other AGNs. Objects from our sample are 10 times less likely to have soft X-ray counterparts in RASS than type I AGNs with the same redshifts and [ O III] lambda5007 luminosities. The few type II AGN candidates from our sample that are detected by RASS have harder X-ray spectra than those of type I AGNs. The multiwavelength properties of the type II AGN candidates from our sample are consistent with their interpretation as powerful obscured AGNs.