A Census of Compton Thick AGN in the Local Universe

We propose a snapshot (10ks) survey of the 15 northern Seyfert 2s from the 12micron galaxy sample which do not currently have high quality hard Xraycoverage. MidIR selection is relatively unbiased against obscured objects and,in particular, Compton thick sources. Our complete sample of 54 objects willtherefore provide a new estimate of the fraction of Compton thick AGN in thelocal universe, and hence the NH distribution for AGN. These are crucialingredients for AGN unification, population synthesis models of the Xraybackground, and the determination of the accretion history and total accretionbudget of the Universe. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]