Cooling timescale of dust tori in dying active galactic nuclei

Abstract

We estimate the dust torus cooling timescale once the active galactic nucleus (AGN) is quenched. In a clumpy torus system, once the incoming photons are suppressed, the cooling timescale of one clump from $T_{\mathrm{dust}}=1000$ K to several $10$ K is less than $10$ years, indicating that the dust torus cooling time is mainly governed by the light crossing time of the torus from the central engine. After considering the light crossing time of the torus, the AGN torus emission at $12\mu$m becomes over two orders of magnitude fainter within $100$ years after the quenching. We also propose that those "dying" AGN could be found using the AGN indicators with different physical scale $R$ such as $12\mu$m band luminosity tracing AGN torus ($R\sim 10$ pc) and the optical [OIII]$\lambda 5007$ emission line narrow line regions ($R=10^{2-4}$ pc).

arXiv comment8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (58)

• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
• The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE): Mission Description and Initial On-orbit Performance
• Dust Grain Size Distributions and Extinction in the Milky Way, LMC, and SMC
• The Host Galaxies and Classification of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Spectral Energy Distributions of T Tauri Stars With Passive Circumstellar Disks
• An atomic and molecular database for analysis of submillimetre line observations
• Local Supermassive Black Holes, Relics of Active Galactic Nuclei and the X-ray Background
• Galaxy Zoo : Morphologies derived from visual inspection of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• AGN Dusty Tori: II. Observational Implications of Clumpiness
• Infrared Emission from Interstellar Dust. I. Stochastic Heating of Small Grains
• AGN Dusty Tori: I. Handling of Clumpy Media
• Scattering by Interstellar Dust Grains. II. X-Rays
• Dust in active nuclei. I. Evidence for "anomalous" properties
• Resolving the mid-infrared cores of local Seyferts
• Spectral Energy Distributions of T Tauri and Herbig Ae Disks: Grain Mineralogy, Parameter Dependences, and Comparison with ISO LWS Observations
• Galaxy Zoo : 'Hanny's Voorwerp', a quasar light echo?
• A diversity of dusty AGN tori: Data release for the VLTI/MIDI AGN Large Program and first results for 23 galaxies
• Torus and AGN properties of nearby Seyfert galaxies: Results from fitting IR spectral energy distributions and spectroscopy
• Reverberation Measurements of the Inner Radius of the Dust Torus in 17 Seyfert Galaxies
• First X-ray-Based Statistical Tests for Clumpy-Torus Models: Eclipse Events from 230 Years of Monitoring of Seyfert AGN
• Dusty Structure Around Type-I Active Galactic Nuclei: Clumpy Torus Narrow Line Region and Near-Nucleus Hot Dust
• The dusty torus in the Circinus galaxy: a dense disk and the torus funnel
• Dust in the polar region as a major contributor to the IR emission of AGN
• ALMA resolves the torus of NGC 1068: continuum and molecular line emission
• Resolving the obscuring torus in NGC 1068 with the power of infrared interferometry: Revealing the inner funnel of dust
• Size and Structure of the Narrow-Line Region of Quasars
• The subarcsecond mid-infrared view of local active galactic nuclei: II. The mid-infrared--X-ray correlation
• The Infrared Nuclear Emission of Seyfert Galaxies on Parsec Scales: Testing the Clumpy Torus models
• Constraints on Black Hole Growth, Quasar Lifetimes, and Eddington Ratio Distributions from the SDSS Broad Line Quasar Black Hole Mass Function
• Parsec-scale dust emission from the polar region in the type 2 nucleus of NGC 424
• Mapping the radial structure of AGN tori
• Molecular Hydrogen Emission from Protoplanetary Disks
• Mid-infrared interferometry of 23 AGN tori: On the significance of polar-elongated emission
• AGN dust tori at low and high luminosities
• Spatially-resolved mid-infrared spectroscopy of NGC 1068: the nature and distribution of the nuclear material
• Modeling Dust and Starlight in Galaxies Observed by Spitzer and Herschel: NGC 628 and NGC 6946
• Revisiting the relationship between 6 μm and 2-10 keV continuum luminosities of AGN
• On the difference of torus geometry between hidden and non-hidden broad line active galactic nuclei
• The Complete Infrared View of Active Galactic Nuclei from the 70-month Swift/BAT Catalog
• Mid-infrared properties of nearby low-luminosity AGN at high angular resolution
• Mid and Far Infrared Properties of a Complete Sample of Local AGNs
• Fading AGN Candidates: AGN Histories and Outflow Signatures
• Luminosity and Redshift Dependence of the Covering Factor of AGNs viewed with WISE and SDSS
• [O III]$\lambda 5007$ and X-ray Properties of a Complete Sample of Hard X-ray Selected AGNs in the Local Universe
• The Sudden Death of the Nearest Quasar
• Isotropic Mid-Infrared Emission from the Central 100 pc of Active Galaxies
• ALMA 0.1-0.2 arcsec resolution imaging of the NGC 1068 nucleus - compact dense molecular gas emission at the putative AGN location
• Modeling the Nuclear Infrared Spectral Energy Distribution of Type II Active Galactic Nuclei
• A sample of Seyfert-2 galaxies with ultra-luminous galaxy-wide NLRs -- Quasar light echos?
• Gemini Imaging of Mid-IR Emission from the Nuclear Region of Centaurus A
• From the Circumnuclear Disk in the Galactic Center to thick, obscuring tori of AGNs
• Extended X-ray emission in the IC 2497 - Hanny's Voorwerp system: energy injection in the gas around a fading AGN
• The nuclear and extended mid-infrared emission of Seyfert galaxies
• The [O III] Nebula of the Merger Remnant NGC 7252: A Likely Faint Ionization Echo
• On the evolution of gas clouds exposed to AGN radiation. I. Three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations
• About AGN ionization echoes, thermal echoes, and ionization deficits in low redshift Lyman-alpha blobs
• The off-centered Seyfert-like compact emission in the nuclear region of NGC 3621
• The sign of active galactic nucleus quenching in a merger remnant with radio jets

Cited by in corpus (14)

• A Mid-IR Selected Changing-Look Quasar and Physical Scenarios for Abrupt AGN Fading
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Identification of active galactic nuclei in optical integral field unit surveys
• CO Emission in Infrared-Selected Active Galactic Nuclei
• Rapid Luminosity Decline and Subsequent Reformation of the Innermost Dust Distribution in the Changing-look AGN Mrk 590
• Discovery of Dying Active Galactic Nucleus in Arp 187: Experience of Drastic Luminosity Decline within $10^4$ years
• NuSTAR Observations of AGN with Low Observed X-ray to [OIII] Luminosity Ratios: Heavily Obscured AGN or Turned-Off AGN?
• Dust Destruction by Drift-Induced Sputtering in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Modeling the Infrared Reverberation Response of the Circumnuclear Dusty Torus in AGNs: An Investigation of Torus Response Functions
• Discovery of a strong ionized-gas outflow in an AKARI-selected Ultra-luminous Infrared Galaxy at z = 0.5
• Finding of a population of active galactic nuclei showing a significant luminosity decline in the past $\sim 10^{3-4}$ yrs
• NuSTAR hard X-ray data and Gemini 3D spectra reveal powerful AGN and outflow histories in two low-redshift Lyman-$\alpha$ blobs
• NuSTAR Non-detection of a Faint Active Galactic Nucleus in an Ultraluminous IR Galaxy with Kpc-scale Fast Wind
• An interacting galaxy pair at the origin of a light echo
• Implication of a galaxy-scale negative feedback by one of the most powerful multi-phase outflows in a hyper-luminous infrared galaxy at the intermediate redshift