The dust-gas AGN torus as constrained from X-ray and mid-infrared observations

Autor: I. García-Bernete, Cristina Ramos-Almeida, Jacopo Fritz, Josefa Masegosa, Deborah Dultzin, Donaji Esparza-Arredondo, Omaira González-Martín, Natalia Osorio-Clavijo
Přispěvatelé: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Seyfert [Galaxies]
Galaxies: Seyfert
Active galactic nucleus
active [Galaxies]
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Continuum (design consultancy)
FOS: Physical sciences
Context (language use)
Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics
7. Clean energy
01 natural sciences
Spectral line
galaxies [Infrared]
0103 physical sciences
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Luminous infrared galaxy
Physics
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Torus
Galaxies: active
Infrared: galaxies
Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
galaxies [X-rays]
Interstellar medium
X-rays: galaxies
13. Climate action
Space and Planetary Science
Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
Reflection (physics)
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Zdroj: Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname
ISSN: 1432-0746
0004-6361
Popis: Context. In recent decades, several multiwavelength studies have been dedicated to exploring the properties of the obscuring material in active galactic nuclei (AGN). Various models have been developed to describe the structure and distribution of this material and constrain its physical and geometrical parameters through spectral fitting techniques. However, questions around the way in which torus mid-infrared (mid-IR) and X-ray emission are related remain unanswered. Aims. In this work, we aim to study whether the dust continuum at mid-IR and gas reflection at X-rays have the same distribution in a sample of AGN. Methods. We carefully selected a sample of 36 nearby AGN with NuSTAR and Spitzer spectra available that satisfy the following criteria: (1) the AGN component dominates the mid-IR spectra (i.e., the stellar and interstellar medium components contribute less than 50% to the spectrum), and (2) the reflection component contributes significantly to the X-ray spectrum. Furthermore, we discarded the sources whose reflection component could be produced by ionized material in the disk. We derived the properties of the nuclear dust and gas through a spectral fitting, using models developed for mid-IR and X-ray wavelengths assuming smooth and clumpy distributions for this structure. Results. We find that a combination of smooth and clumpy distributions of gas and dust, respectively, is preferred for ∼80% of sources with good spectral fits according to the Akaike criterion. However, considering extra information about each individual source, such as the absorption variability, we find that ∼50% of our sources are best described by a clumpy distribution of both dust and gas. The remaining ∼50% of our sources can still be explained with a smooth distribution of gas and a clumpy distribution of dust. Furthermore, we explored the torus dust-to-gas ratio, finding that it is [0.01–1] times that of the interstellar medium. Conclusions. The results presented in this paper suggest that the distribution of the gas and dust in AGN is complex. We find at least six scenarios to explain the observed properties of our sample. In these scenarios, three gas–dust distribution combinations are possible: clumpy–clumpy, smooth–smooth, and smooth–clumpy. Most of them are in agreement with the notion that gas could also be located in the dust-free region, which is consistent with the dust-to-gas ratio found. © ESO 2021.
This work made use of data from the NuSTAR mission, a project led by CalTech, managed by JPL, and funded by NASA. We thank the NuSTAR Operations, Software and Calibration teams for support with the execution and analysis of these observations. This research has made use of the NuSTAR Data Analysis Software (NuSTAR-DAS) jointly developed by the ASI Science Data Center (ASDC, Italy) and CalTech. This work is based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. D.E.-A. and N.O.-C. acknowledge support from a CONACYT scholarship. This research is mainly funded by the UNAM PAPIIT projects IN105720 and IA113719 (PI O.G.-M. and PI D.D.). J.M. acknowledges financial support by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MEC) under grant no. AYA2016-76682-C3 and from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award to the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709). C.R.-A. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MCIU) under grant with reference RYC-2014-15779, from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 860744 (BiD4BESt), from the State Research Agency (AEI-MCINN) of the Spanish MCIU under grants "Feeding and feedback in active galaxies" with reference PID2019-106027GB-C4 and "Quantifying the impact of quasar feedback on galaxy evolution (QSOFEED)" with reference EUR2020-112266. CRA also acknowledges support from the Consejeria de Economia, Conocimiento y Empleo del Gobierno de Canarias and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under grant with reference ProID2020010105 and from IAC project P/301404, financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, through the State Budget and by the Canary Islands Department of Economy, Knowledge and Employment, through the Regional Budget of the Autonomous Community. I.G.-B. acknowledges support from STFC through grant ST/S000488 1.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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