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B.J. Wilkes (SAO), P. Smith (UofA), G.D. Schmidt (UofA), R. Cutri (IPAC), B. Nelson (IPAC), D. Hines (UofA)
Previously unidentified, luminous red active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are being found in the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), with number densities similar to, or greater than, previously known AGN, suggesting that a large fraction of the AGN population has been missed. Their unusually high polarization levels and polarized broad lines in many sources strongly indicates the presence of a hidden QSO which is revealed in scattered light. We are making Chandra observations of a well-defined subset of these sources with B - KS > 4.3 and KS < 13.8 to measure the AGN strength and the column density of obscuring gas and to complete the near-IR--X-ray spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Key questions are the relationship of these new objects to known AGN and, in particular, whether they are the ``obscured AGN" predicted as the missing component of the cosmic X-ray background (CXRB). We report our initial results which suggest that these red AGN are heavily absorbed in the X-rays with column densities NH ~1023 cm-2.