A Complete Sample of the Brightest Type 2 AGN in the SDSS

We propose to obtain XMMNewton data for a complete sample of the 20 brightestType 2 AGN drawn from virgul100000 lowz AGN in the SDSS DR4. The sample members havea flux in the OIII5007 emission line > 4x10E14 erg/(cm^2 s). Each has awealth of information about the AGN and its host galaxy derived homogeneouslyfrom the SDSS (including the black hole mass, OIII luminosity, and Eddingtonratio for the AGN and the mass, structure, and stellar content of the galaxy).We will use these combined data to determine the fraction of Comptonthick AGNand to determine whether they differ systematically in terms of the propertiesof the AGN and the host galaxy. This will provide new insights into AGN physics,the evolution of galaxies and black holes, and the hard Xray background. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]