Thick turbulent gas disks with magnetocentrifugal winds in active galactic nuclei - Model infrared emission and optical polarization

Abstract

(Abridged) Infrared high-resolution imaging and interferometry have shown that the dust distribution is frequently elongated along the polar direction of an AGN. To explain these findings, we developed a model scenario for the inner ~30 pc of an AGN. We assume a rotating thick gas disk between about one and ten parsec. External gas accretion adds mass and injects energy via gas compression into this gas disk and drives turbulence. Our disks are assumed to be strongly magnetized via equipartition between the turbulent gas pressure and the energy density of the magnetic field. In a second step, we built three dimensional density cubes based on the analytical model, illuminated them with a central source, and made radiative transfer calculations. In a third step, we calculated MIR visibility amplitudes and compared them to available interferometric observations. We show that magnetocentrifugal winds starting from a thin and thick gas disk are viable in active galaxy centers. Once the wind is launched, it is responsible for the transport of angular momentum and the gas disk can become thin. The outflow scenario can account for the elongated dust structures, outer edges of the thin maser disks, and molecular outflows observed in local AGN. The models reproduce the observed terminal wind velocities, the scatter of the MIR/intrinsic X-ray correlation, and point source fractions. An application of the model to the Circinus Galaxy and NGC 1068 shows that the IR SED, available MIR interferometric observations, and optical polarization can be reproduced in a satisfactory way, provided that (i) a puff-up at the inner edge of the thin disk is present and (ii) a local screen with an optical depth of tau_V 20 in form of a local gas filament and/or a warp of the thick disk hide a significant fraction of both nuclei.

accepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (23)

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• A Close Look at Star Formation around Active Galactic Nuclei
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• Constraints on the Broad Line Region Properties and Extinction in Local Seyferts
• Survival of the obscuring torus in the most powerful active galactic nuclei
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• Geometrically thick obscuration by radiation-driven outflow from magnetized tori of active galactic nuclei
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Cited by in corpus (19)

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• Dissecting the active galactic nucleus in Circinus -- II. A thin dusty disc and a polar outflow on parsec scales
• New evidence for the ubiquity of prominent polar dust emission in AGN on tens of parsec scales
• Infrared Spectral Energy Distribution and Variability of Active Galactic Nuclei: Clues to the Structure of Circumnuclear Material
• Black hole mass estimates in quasars - A comparative analysis of high- and low-ionization lines
• X-ray radiative transfer in full 3D with SKIRT
• Radiation hydrodynamics models of Active Galactic Nuclei: Beyond the central parsec
• The Physical Properties of Low Redshift FeLoBAL Quasars. I. Spectral Synthesis Analysis of the BAL Outflows using $SimBAL$
• Parsec-scale Dusty Winds in Active Galactic Nuclei: Evidence for Radiation Pressure Driving
• ALMA resolves the remarkable molecular jet and rotating wind in the extremely radio-quiet galaxy NGC 1377
• ALMA imaging of the cold molecular and dusty disk in the type 2 active nucleus of the Circinus galaxy
• X-ray signatures of the polar dusty gas in AGN
• The Close AGN Reference Survey (CARS): Tracing the circumnuclear star formation in the super-Eddington NLS1 Mrk 1044
• A weakening Compton hump and soft X-ray excess detected in the Seyfert-1 galaxy MCG-02-58-22
• A spectacular galactic scale magnetohydrodynamic powered wind in ESO 320-G030
• Torus feeding and outflow launching in the active nucleus of the Circinus galaxy
• From the Circumnuclear Disk in the Galactic Center to thick, obscuring tori of AGNs -- Modelling the molecular emission of a parsec-scale torus as found in NGC1068