Dust inflated accretion disc as the origin of the Broad Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei

Abstract

The Broad Line Region (BLR) in AGN is composed of dense gas ($\sim 10^{11}$ cm${}^{-3}$) on sub-pc scale, which absorbs about 30 per cent of the ionising continuum. The outer size of the BLR is likely set by dust sublimation, and its density by the incident radiation pressure compression (RPC). But, what is the origin of this gas, and what sets its covering factor (CF)? Czerny & Hryniewicz (2011) suggested that the BLR is a failed dusty wind from the outer accretion disc. We explore the expected dust properties, and the implied BLR structure. We find that graphite grains sublimate only at $T\simeq 2000$ K at the predicted density of $\sim 10^{11}$ cm${}^{-3}$, and therefore large graphite grains ($\ge 0.3$ $\mu$m) survive down to the observed size of the BLR, $R_{\mathrm{BLR}}$. The dust opacity in the accretion disc atmosphere is $\sim 50$ times larger than previously assumed, and leads to an inflated torus-like structure, with a predicted peak height at $R_{\mathrm{BLR}}$. The illuminated surface of this torus-like structure is a natural place for the BLR. The BLR CF is mostly set by the gas metallicity, the radiative accretion efficiency, a dynamic configuration, and ablation by the incident optical-UV continuum. This model predicts that the BLR should extend inwards of $R_{\mathrm{BLR}}$ to the disc radius where the surface temperature is $\simeq 2000$ K, which occurs at $R_{\mathrm{in}}\simeq 0.18R_{\mathrm{BLR}}$. The value of $R_{\mathrm{in}}$ can be tested by reverberation mapping of the higher ionisation lines, predicted by RPC to peak well inside $R_{\mathrm{BLR}}$. The dust inflated disc scenario can also be tested based on the predicted response of $R_{\mathrm{BLR}}$ and the CF to changes in the AGN luminosity and accretion rate.

arXiv comment28 pages, 15 figures; accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (95)

• Dust Grain Size Distributions and Extinction in the Milky Way, LMC, and SMC
• X-ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries
• Local Supermassive Black Holes, Relics of Active Galactic Nuclei and the X-ray Background
• Low Temperature Opacities
• A fundamental relation between mass, SFR and metallicity in local and high redshift galaxies
• Dust Masses, PAH Abundances, and Starlight Intensities in the SINGS Galaxy Sample
• Observational constraints on growth of massive black holes
• The SDSS Quasar Survey: Quasar Luminosity Function from Data Release Three
• The Low-Luminosity End of the Radius-Luminosity Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Relationship Between Luminosity and Broad-Line Region Size in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Radiation Pressure Supported Starburst Disks and AGN Fueling
• Passive irradiated circumstellar disks with an inner hole
• Gas-to-Dust mass ratios in local galaxies over a 2 dex metallicity range
• The Radius-Luminosity Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei: The Effect of Host-Galaxy Starlight on Luminosity Measurements II. The Full Sample of Reverberation-Mapped AGNs
• AGN Dusty Tori: I. Handling of Clumpy Media
• Rosseland and Planck Mean Opacities for Protoplanetary Discs
• Dynamics of Line-Driven Disk Winds in Active Galactic Nuclei II: Effects of Disk Radiation
• The AGN Obscuring Torus -- End of the "Doughnut" Paradigm?
• Reverberation Measurements of the Inner Radius of the Dust Torus in Nearby Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• Systematic Effects in Measurement of Black Hole Masses by Emission-Line Reverberation of Active Galactic Nuclei: Eddington Ratio and Inclination
• Reverberation Mapping of High-Luminosity Quasars: First Results
• Elemental Abundances in QSOs: Star Formation and Galactic Nuclear Evolution at High Redshifts
• Broad Emission Line Shifts in Quasars: An Orientation Measure for Radio-Quiet Quasars?
• The Radiative Efficiency of Accretion Flows in Individual AGN
• Modeling reverberation mapping data II: dynamical modeling of the Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2008 dataset
• The inner regions of protoplanetary disks
• The origin of the Broad Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Completion of a Survey and Detailed Study of Double-Peaked Emission Lines in Radio-Loud AGNs
• Radiative Transfer Modeling of Three-Dimensional Clumpy AGN Tori and its Application to NGC 1068
• Reverberation Measurements of the Inner Radius of the Dust Torus in 17 Seyfert Galaxies
• The Shape of the Inner Rim in Proto-Planetary Disks
• Broad Emission Line Regions in AGN: the Link with the Accretion Power
• An Atlas of Computed Equivalent Widths of Quasar Broad Emission Lines
• Near Infrared Spectroscopy of High Redshift Active Galactic Nuclei. I. A Metallicity-Accretion Rate Relationship
• On the Disappearance of the Broad-Line Region in Low-Luminosity Agns
• A Composite Extreme Ultraviolet QSO Spectrum from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer
• Hidden Broad Line Seyfert 2 Galaxies in the CfA and 12micron Samples
• Hot Graphite Dust and the Infrared Spectral Energy Distribution of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Towards a physical model of dust tori in Active Galactic Nuclei - Radiative transfer calculations for a hydrostatic torus model
• Radiative Transfer and Acceleration in Magnetocentrifugal Winds
• Evolution of Broad-line Emission from Active Galactic Nuclei
• Radiation-driven Fountain and Origin of Torus around Active Galactic Nuclei
• The characteristic blue spectra of accretion disks in quasars as uncovered in the infrared
• The innermost dusty structure in active galactic nuclei as probed by the Keck interferometer
• Type 1 low z AGN. I. Emission properties
• Quasar Elemental Abundances at High Redshifts
• Double-Peaked Broad Emission Lines in NGC 4450 and Other LINERs
• On the Thermal Stability of Radiation Dominated Accretion Disks
• Average UV Quasar Spectra in the Context of Eigenvector 1: A Baldwin Effect Governed by Eddington Ratio?
• Line driven winds and the UV turnover in AGN accretion discs
• Dust-free quasars in the early Universe
• Active Galactic Nuclei Emission-Line Properties Versus Eddington Ratio
• AGN Obscuring Tori Supported by Infrared Radiation Pressure
• Locally Optimally-emitting Clouds and the Narrow Emission Lines in Seyfert Galaxies
• On the origin of the C IV Baldwin effect in AGN
• AGN are cooler than you think: the intrinsic far-IR emission from QSOs
• Cold Accretion Disks and Lineless Quasars
• Dust-Deficient Palomar-Green Quasars and the Diversity of AGN Intrinsic IR Emission
• Radiation Feedback in ULIRGS: Are Photons Movers and Shakers?
• Radiation pressure confinement - II. Application to the broad line region in active galactic nuclei
• Evidence for a Black Hole and Accretion Disk in the LINER NGC 4203
• The shape of broad-line profiles in AGN
• Radiation Pressure Confinement - I. Ionized Gas in the ISM of AGN Hosts
• Failed radiatively Accelerated Dusty Outflow model of the Broad Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei. I. Analytical solution
• Hot-Dust-Poor Type 1 Active Galactic Nuclei in the COSMOS Survey
• The Nuclear Spectral Energy Distribution of NGC 4395, The Least Luminous Type 1 Seyfert Galaxy
• Time-resolved infrared emission from radiation-driven central obscuring structures in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Broad-Line and Narrow-Line Regions of the LINER NGC 4579
• Hot Dust Clouds with Pure Graphite Composition around Type-I Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Intrinsic Far-infrared Continua of Type-1 Quasars
• The average absorption properties of broad absorption line quasars at 800 < lambda_rest < 3000 Å, and the underlying physical parameters
• Evidence for a receding dust sublimation region around a supermassive black hole
• Subparsec-scale dynamics of a dusty gas disk exposed to anisotropic AGN radiation with frequency-dependent radiative transfer
• Active galactic nuclei at z ~ 1.5: III. Accretion discs and black hole spin
• The near-to-mid infrared spectrum of quasars
• Radiation-driven outflows from and radiative support in dusty tori of active galactic nuclei
• Simultaneous X-ray and optical observations of true Type 2 Seyfert galaxies
• AGN obscuration through dusty infrared dominated flows. I. Radiation-hydrodynamics solution for the wind
• Radiation pressure confinement - IV. Application to broad absorption line outflows
• Evidence that most type 1 AGN are reddened by dust in the host ISM
• Hot-Dust-Poor Quasars in Mid-Infrared and Optically Selected Samples
• Radiation Hydrodynamic Simulations of Dust-Driven Winds
• The Ly-edge paradox and the need for obscured QSOs
• Constraining the dynamical importance of hot gas and radiation pressure in quasar outflows using emission line ratios
• AGN obscuration from winds: from dusty infrared-driven to warm and X-ray photoionized
• On the evolution of gas clouds exposed to AGN radiation. I. Three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations
• Spectral Variability of Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. II: The C IV Line
• Sweeping Away the Mysteries of Dusty Continuous Winds in AGN
• Physical Properties of Luminous Dust Poor Quasars
• On the origins of C IV absorption profile diversity in broad absorption line quasars
• Metallicity and Far-Infrared Luminosity of High Redshift Quasars
• Constraints on the outer radius of the broad emission line region of active galactic nuclei
• Monitoring the temperature and reverberation delay of the circumnuclear hot dust in NGC 4151
• Spatially Resolving the Kinematics of the <100 μas Quasar Broad Line Region using Spectroastrometry
• New Constraints on the Quasar Broad Emission Line Region

Cited by in corpus (102)

• Redefining the torus: A unifying view of AGN in the infrared and sub-mm
• A new physical interpretation of optical and infrared variability in quasars
• An image of the dust sublimation region in the nucleus of NGC 1068
• Quantifying the impact of variable BLR diffuse continuum contributions on measured continuum inter-band delays
• Thermal imaging of dust hiding the black hole in the Active Galaxy NGC 1068
• AGN Selection and Demographics: A New Age with JWST/MIRI
• Dissecting the active galactic nucleus in Circinus -- II. A thin dusty disc and a polar outflow on parsec scales
• Modelling of the quasar main sequence in the optical plane
• The spatially resolved broad line region of IRAS 09149-6206
• Monitoring AGNs with Hβ Asymmetry. I. First Results: Velocity-resolved Reverberation Mapping
• New evidence for the ubiquity of prominent polar dust emission in AGN on tens of parsec scales
• Polar Dust, Nuclear Obscuration and IR SED Diversity in Type-1 AGNs
• Mid-IR Variability and Dust Reverberation Mapping of Low-$z$ Quasars. I. Data, Methods and Basic Results
• Reverberation Measurements of the Inner Radii of the Dust Tori in Quasars
• Revisiting The Spectral and Timing Properties of NGC 4151
• State-of-the-art AGN SEDs for Photoionization Models: BLR Predictions Confront the Observations
• Testing broad line region models with Reverberation Mapping
• Stratified disc wind models for the AGN broad-line region: ultraviolet, optical and X-ray properties
• Testing AGN outflow and accretion models with CIV and HeII emission line demographics in z=2 quasars
• Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. VIII. Time Variability of Emission and Absorption in NGC 5548 Based on Modeling the Ultraviolet Spectrum
• The variable and non-variable X-ray absorbers in Compton-thin type-II Active Galactic Nuclei
• HST unveils a compact mildly relativistic Broad Line Region in the candidate true type 2 NGC 3147
• Infrared Spectral Energy Distribution and Variability of Active Galactic Nuclei: Clues to the Structure of Circumnuclear Material
• The z=0.54 LoBAL Quasar SDSS J085053.12+445122.5: I. Spectral Synthesis Analysis Reveals a Massive Outflow
• The picture of BLR in 2.5-D FRADO: Dynamics & Geometry
• A Transient "Changing-look'' Active Galactic Nucleus Resolved on Month Timescales from First-year Sloan Digital Sky Survey V Data
• Reverberation Mapping Measurements of Black Hole Masses and Broad-Line Region Kinematics in Mrk 817 and NGC 7469
• pAGN: the one-stop solution for AGN disc modeling
• Spectropolarimetry of High Redshift Obscured and Red Quasars
• Rimmed and Rippled Accretion Disc Models to Explain AGN Continuum Lags
• The first spectroscopic dust reverberation programme on active galactic nuclei: the torus in NGC 5548
• Exploring the link between C IV outflow kinematics and sublimation-temperature dust in quasars
• The peculiar emission line spectra of core-Extremely Red BOSS Quasars at $z\sim$2-3: orientation and/or evolution?
• HST/COS observations of the newly discovered obscuring outflow in NGC 3783
• The Dusty Heart of NGC 4151 Revealed by $\lambda \sim$1-40 $\mu$m Reverberation Mapping and Variability: A Challenge to Current Clumpy Torus Models
• The Changing Look Blazar B2 1420+32
• Rapid Luminosity Decline and Subsequent Reformation of the Innermost Dust Distribution in the Changing-look AGN Mrk 590
• Interpretation of Departure from the Broad Line Region Scaling in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Radiation pressure on dust explains the Low Ionized Broad Emission Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The CaFe Project: Optical Fe II and Near-Infrared Ca II triplet emission in active galaxies: (I) Photoionization modelling
• Active Galactic Nuclei with Ultra-fast Outflows Monitoring Project: The Broad-line Region of Mrk 79 as a Disk Wind
• Exploring the Diversity of Type 1 Active Galactic Nuclei Identified in SDSS-IV/SPIDERS
• Radiation pressure confinement -- V. The predicted free-free absorption and emission in active galactic nuclei
• A Long-Duration Luminous Type IIn Supernova KISS15s: Strong Recombination Lines from the Inhomogeneous Ejecta-CSM Interaction Region and Hot Dust Emission from Newly Formed Dust
• Dust Destruction by Charging: A Possible Origin of Grey Extinction Curves of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Obscuring fraction of active galactic nuclei implied by supernova and radiative feedbacks
• Dust Destruction by Drift-Induced Sputtering in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Intermediate-line Emission in AGNs: The Effect of Prescription of the Gas Density
• Considerations for the Observability of Kinematically Offset Binary AGN
• A falling Corona model for the anomalous behavior of the broad emission lines in NGC 5548
• On the Emergence of Thousands of Absorption Lines in the Quasar PG1411+442: A Clumpy High-Column Density Outflow from the Broad Emission-Line Region?
• Narrow Fe-K$\alpha$ Reverberation Mapping Unveils the Deactivated Broad-Line Region in a Changing-Look Active Galactic Nucleus
• Discovery of late-time X-ray flare and anomalous emission line enhancement after the nuclear optical outburst in a narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxy
• Multiphase Gas Nature in the Sub-parsec Region of the Active Galactic Nuclei I: Dynamical Structures of Dusty and Dust-free Outflow
• Dust-driven wind as a model of Broad Absorption Line quasars
• A complete catalogue of broad-line AGNs and double-peaked emission lines from MaNGA integral-field spectroscopy of 10K galaxies: stellar population of AGNs, supermassive black holes, and dual AGNs
• The first interferometric survey in the K-band of massive YSOs. On the hot dust, ionised gas, and binarity at au scales
• Spectropolarimetry of low redshift Quasars: origin of the polarization and implications for black hole mass estimates
• Dust Budget Crisis in Little Red Dots
• Galactic Winds across the Gas-Rich Merger Sequence: I. Highly Ionized N V and O VI Outflows in the QUEST Quasars
• Dissecting the active galactic nucleus in Circinus -- III. VLT/FORS2 polarimetry confirms dusty cone illuminated by a tilted accretion disc
• Dusty plasma in active galactic nuclei
• The role of grain size in AGN torus dust models
• Broad He I 1.08 μm absorption from the obscurer in the active galaxy NGC 5548
• Diffuse emission in microlensed quasars and its implications for accretion-disk physics
• Spiral Arms in Broad-line Regions of Active Galactic Nuclei. I. Reverberation and Differential Interferometric Signals of Tightly Wound Cases
• Broad-line region in active galactic nuclei: Dusty or dustless?
• BLR size in Realistic FRADO Model: The role of shielding effect
• Dust Dynamics in AGN Winds: A New Mechanism For Multiwavelength AGN Variability
• More variable quasars have stronger emission lines
• Measuring the AGN sublimation radius with a new approach: reverberation mapping of the broad line polarization
• The hot dust in the heart of NGC 1068's torus: A 3D radiative model constrained with GRAVITY/VLTi
• Dust Reverberation Mapping of Type 2 AGN NGC 2110 Realized with X-ray and 3-5 $\mu$m IR monitoring
• Measurement of AGN dust extinction based on the near-infrared flux variability of WISE data
• Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays from ultra-fast outflows of active galactic nuclei
• The circumstellar matter of type II intermediate luminosity optical transients (ILOTs)
• Near-Infrared Variability of Low Mass Stars in IC 1396A and TR 37
• A new galaxy spectral energy distribution model consistent with the evolution of dust
• The long-term broad-line responsivity in MKN 110
• A complex dust morphology in the high-luminosity AGN Mrk 876
• Velocity-Resolved Ionization Mapping of Broad Line Region. I. Insights into Diverse Geometry and Kinematics
• Long-term variability of the composite galaxy SDSS J103911-000057: A candidate of true Type-2 AGN
• The first X-ray look at SMSS J114447.77-430859.3: the most luminous quasar in the last 9 Gyr
• A comparative study of the physical properties for a representative sample of Narrow and Broad-line Seyfert galaxies
• Updated Picture of the Active Galactic Nuclei with Dusty/Dust-free Gas Structures and Effects of the Radiation Pressure
• Application of the FRADO model of BLR formation to the Seyfert galaxy NGC 5548 and the first step toward determining the Hubble constant
• Hot graphite dust in the inner regime of NGC 4151
• The Wind Dynamics of Super-Eddington Sources in FRADO
• JWST captures a sudden stellar outburst and inner disk wall destruction
• Analyzing temporal variations of AGN emission line profiles in the context of (dusty) cloud structure formation in the broad line region
• H$\beta$ line shape and radius-luminosity relation in 2.5D FRADO
• Polarization in broad emission lines of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Detection of Asymmetry in the Narrow Fe K$\alpha$ Emission Line in MCG-5-23-16 with Chandra
• The Reliability of Accretion Disk Inclination Derived from X-ray Spectroscopy of Active Galaxies
• Infrared observations reveal the reprocessing envelope in the tidal disruption event AT 2019azh
• Modeling the Reverberation Response of the Broad Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei II: Incorporating Photoionization Models
• A physical model for radiative, convective dusty disk in AGN
• On the Relation between the Inclination Angle of the Accretion Disk and the Broad-line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei
• XMM-Newton spectrum of the radio-loud quasar 3C 215: slim accretion disk or SMBH binary?
• Non-thermal emission from fall-back clouds in the Broad-Line Region of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Accretion in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The neutral gas phase nearest to supermassive black holes