AGN obscuration through dusty infrared dominated flows. I. Radiation-hydrodynamics solution for the wind

Abstract

We construct a radiation-hydrodynamics model for the obscuring toroidal structure in active galactic nuclei. In this model the obscuration is produced at parsec scale by a dense, dusty wind which is supported by infrared radiation pressure on dust grains. To find the distribution of radiation pressure, we numerically solve the 2D radiation transfer problem in a flux limited diffusion approximation. We iteratively couple the solution with calculations of stationary 1D models for the wind, and obtain the z-component of the velocity. Our results demonstrate that for AGN luminosities greater than 0.1 Ledd external illumination can support a geometrically thick obscuration via outflows driven by infrared radiation pressure. The terminal velocity of marginally Compton-thin models (0.2<tau_T<0.6), is comparable to or greater than the escape velocity. In Compton thick models the maximum value of the vertical component of the velocity is lower than the escape velocity, suggesting that a significant part of our torus is in the form of failed wind. The results demonstrate that obscuration via normal or failed infrared-driven winds is a viable option for the AGN torus problem and AGN unification models. Such winds can also provide an important channel for AGN feedback.

28 pages, 7 figures; accepted to ApJ, minor corrections

References in corpus (6)

• Resolving the complex structure of the dust torus in the active nucleus of the Circinus galaxy
• Resolving the obscuring torus in NGC 1068 with the power of infrared interferometry: Revealing the inner funnel of dust
• AGN dust tori at low and high luminosities
• The Toroidal Obscuration of Active Galactic Nuclei
• An axisymmetric hydrodynamical model for the torus wind in AGN. II: X-ray excited funnel flow
• Radiation Pressure Supported AGN Tori with Hard X-Ray and Stellar Heating

Cited by in corpus (40)

• Dust in the polar region as a major contributor to the IR emission of AGN
• Radiation-driven Fountain and Origin of Torus around Active Galactic Nuclei
• Dust inflated accretion disc as the origin of the Broad Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Obscured Fraction of AGN in the XMM-COSMOS Survey: A Spectral Energy Distribution Perspective
• Redefining the torus: A unifying view of AGN in the infrared and sub-mm
• Dissecting the active galactic nucleus in Circinus -- I. Peculiar mid-IR morphology explained by a dusty hollow cone
• The Nuclear Infrared Emission of Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei
• Obscuring Fraction of Active Galactic Nuclei: Implications from Radiation-driven Fountain Models
• Winds of change - a molecular outflow in NGC 1377? The anatomy of an extreme FIR-excess galaxy
• 3-D Radiative Transfer Calculations of Radiation Feedback from Massive Black Holes: Outflow of Mass from the Dusty "Torus"
• Radiation-driven outflows from and radiative support in dusty tori of active galactic nuclei
• Multi-wavelength campaign on NGC 7469: III. Spectral energy distribution and the AGN wind photoionisation modelling, plus detection of diffuse X-rays from the starburst with Chandra HETGS
• Relation between winds and jets in radio-loud AGN
• Supernovae and AGN driven galactic outflows
• Geometrically thick obscuration by radiation-driven outflow from magnetized tori of active galactic nuclei
• Revisiting the "forbidden" region: AGN radiative feedback with radiation trapping
• AGN obscuration through dusty infrared dominated flows. II. Multidimensional, radiation-hydrodynamics modeling
• Parsec-scale accretion and winds irradiated by a quasar
• AGN obscuration from winds: from dusty infrared-driven to warm and X-ray photoionized
• Radiation hydrodynamics models of Active Galactic Nuclei: Beyond the central parsec
• Sweeping Away the Mysteries of Dusty Continuous Winds in AGN
• Kinetic theory of equilibrium axisymmetric collisionless plasmas in off-equatorial tori around compact objects
• Constraining the Warm Dark Matter Particle Mass through Ultra-Deep UV Luminosity Functions at z=2
• ALMA polarimetry measures magnetically aligned dust grains in the torus of NGC 1068
• Probing the nature and origin of dust in the reddened quasar IC 4329A with global modelling from X-ray to infrared
• Evolution of a Binary Black Hole with a Retrograde Circumbinary Accretion Disk
• N-body simulation of a clumpy torus: application to active galactic nuclei
• Parsec-scale obscuring accretion disk with large scale magnetic field in AGN
• Mid-infrared interferometry of Seyfert galaxies: Challenging the Standard Model
• Connection Between Mid-Infrared Emission Properties and Narrow Line Region Outflows in Type 1 Active Galactic Nuclei
• Modeling the Vertical Structure of Nuclear Starburst Discs: A Possible Source of AGN Obscuration at $z\sim 1$
• The Shape of the Cosmic X-ray Background: Nuclear Starburst Discs and the Redshift Evolution of AGN Obscuration
• On the fate of the matter reinserted within young nuclear stellar clusters
• On the Structure of the AGN Torus through the Fraction of Optically-Selected Type 1 AGNs
• The hypothesis of the dust origin of the Broad Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Signature of outflows in strong MgII absorbers in quasar sightlines
• Apparent counter-rotation in the torus of NGC 1068: influence of an asymmetric wind
• A physical model for radiative, convective dusty disk in AGN
• Accretion in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Torus feeding and outflow launching in the active nucleus of the Circinus galaxy