Dusty Donuts: Modeling the Reverberation Response of the Circumnuclear Dusty Torus Emission in AGN

The obscuring circumnuclear torus of dusty molecular gas is one of the major components of AGN (active galactic nuclei), yet its size, composition, and structure are not well understood. These properties can be studied by analyzing the temporal variations of the infrared (IR) dust emission from the torus in response to variations in the AGN continuum luminosity; a technique known as reverberation mapping. In a recent international campaign 12 AGN were monitored using the Spitzer Space Telescope and several ground-based telescopes, providing a unique set of well-sampled mid-IR and optical light curves which are required in order to determine the approximate sizes of the tori in these AGN. To help extract structural information contained in the data a computer model, TORMAC, has been developed that simulates the reverberation response of the clumpy torus emission. Given an input optical light curve, the code computes the emission of a 3D ensemble of dust clouds as a function of time at selected IR wavelengths, taking into account light travel delays. A large library of torus reverberation response simulations has been constructed, to investigate the effects of various geometrical and structural properties such as inclination, cloud distribution, disk half-opening angle, and radial depth. The effects of dust cloud orientation, cloud optical depth, anisotropy of the illuminating AGN radiation field, dust cloud shadowing, and cloud occultation are also explored in detail. TORMAC was also used to generate synthetic IR light curves for the Seyfert 1 galaxy, NGC 6418, using the observed optical light curve as the input, to investigate how the torus and dust cloud properties incorporated in the code affect the results obtained from reverberation mapping. This dissertation presents the most comprehensive investigation to date showing that radiative transfer effects within the torus and anisotropic illumination of the torus can strongly influence the torus IR response at different wavelengths, and should be accounted for when interpreting reverberation mapping data. TORMAC provides a powerful modeling tool that can generate simulated IR light curves for direct comparison to observations. As many types of astronomical sources are both variable and embedded in, or surrounded, by dust, TORMAC also has applications for dust reverberation studies well beyond the AGN observed in the Spitzer monitoring campaign

Spitzer Space Telescope Measurements of Dust Reverberation Lags in the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 6418

We present results from a fifteen-month campaign of high-cadence (~ 3 days) mid-infrared Spitzer and optical (B and V ) monitoring of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 6418, with the objective of determining the characteristic size of the dusty torus in this active galactic nucleus (AGN). We find that the 3.6 $\mu$m and 4.5 $\mu$m flux variations lag behind those of the optical continuum by $37.2^{+2.4}_{-2.2}$ days and $47.1^{+3.1}_{-3.1}$ days, respectively. We report a cross-correlation time lag between the 4.5 $\mu$m and 3.6 $\mu$m flux of $13.9^{+0.5}_{-0.1}$ days. The lags indicate that the dust emitting at 3.6 $\mu$m and 4.5 $\mu$m is located at a distance of approximately 1 light-month (~ 0.03 pc) from the source of the AGN UV-optical continuum. The reverberation radii are consistent with the inferred lower limit to the sublimation radius for pure graphite grains at 1800 K, but smaller by a factor of ~ 2 than the corresponding lower limit for silicate grains; this is similar to what has been found for near-infrared (K-band) lags in other AGN. The 3.6 and 4.5 $\mu$m reverberation radii fall above the K-band $\tau \propto L^{0.5}$ size-luminosity relationship by factors $\lesssim 2.7$ and $\lesssim 3.4$, respectively, while the 4.5 $\mu$m reverberation radius is only 27% larger than the 3.6 $\mu$m radius. This is broadly consistent with clumpy torus models, in which individual optically thick clouds emit strongly over a broad wavelength range.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

\u3cem\u3eSpitzer Space Telescope\u3c/em\u3e Measurements of Dust Reverberation Lags in the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 6418

We present results from a 15 month campaign of high-cadence (~3 days) mid-infrared Spitzer and optical (B and V) monitoring of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 6418, with the objective of determining the characteristic size of the dusty torus in this active galactic nucleus (AGN). . . . For the remainder of the abstract, please visit: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/801/2/12

Reverberation Response Models of the Infrared Dust Emission from a Clumpy Torus

<p>The obscuring circum-nuclear dusty torus is a major component of AGN and yet, thus far, its shape, composition, and structure have not been well constrained by observations. However, using indirect methods such as reverberation mapping, the size and structure of the torus can be estimated through the time variability of the dusty torus emission in response to changes in the AGN luminosity. I will discuss the computer simulation that I have developed in order to extract structural information from the infrared light curves of 12 Type 1 AGN, obtained during a 2.5 year monitoring campaign using the Spitzer Space Telescope and several ground-based optical telescopes. Given an input optical light curve, the code computes the temporal response of the infrared emission spectrum of a 3D ensemble of dust clouds as a function of time. I will present simulations exploring the effects of various geometrical and structural properties, dust cloud orientation, and anisotropy of the illuminating radiation field on the dusty torus response at selected infrared wavelengths. I will also compare model infrared light curves to those observed for the recently discovered changing-look AGN, NGC 6418.</p