Towards a physical model of dust tori in Active Galactic Nuclei

Abstract

We explore physically self-consistent models of dusty molecular tori in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) with the goal of interpreting VLTI observations and fitting high resolution mid-infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs). The input dust distribution is analytically calculated by assuming hydrostatic equilibrium between pressure forces - due to the turbulent motion of the gas clouds - and gravitational and centrifugal forces as a result of the contribution of the nuclear stellar distribution and the central black hole. For a fully three-dimensional treatment of the radiative transfer problem through the tori we employ the Monte Carlo code MC3D. We find, that in homogeneous dust distributions the observed mid-infrared emission is dominated by the inner funnel of the torus, even when observing along the equatorial plane. Our mean Seyfert galaxy model with a moderate density contrast fits well the available mean quasar SEDs. Also high spatial resolution data of special Seyfert galaxies are in good agreement with our simulations. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.