The resolved size and structure of hot dust in the immediate vicinity of AGN

Abstract

We use VLTI/GRAVITY near-infrared interferometry measurements of 8 bright, Type 1 AGN to study the size and structure of hot dust heated by the central engine. We partially resolve each source, and report Gaussian FWHM sizes in the range 0.3-0.8 milliarcseconds. In all but one object, we find no evidence for significant elongation or asymmetry (closure phases < 1 deg). The effective physical radius increases with bolometric luminosity as found from past reverberation and interferometry measurements. The measured sizes for Seyfert galaxies are systematically larger than for the two quasars in our sample when measured relative to the previously reported R ~ L^1/2 relationship explained by emission at the sublimation radius. This could be evidence of evolving near-infrared emission region structure as a function of central luminosity.

arXiv comment13 pages, 9 figures, submitted to A&A

References in corpus (50)

• Unified Schemes for Radio-Loud Active Galactic Nuclei
• Reverberation Measurements for 17 Quasars and the Size-Mass-Luminosity Relations in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Central Masses and Broad-Line Region Sizes of Active Galactic Nuclei. II. A Homogeneous Analysis of a Large Reverberation-Mapping Database
• Determining Central Black Hole Masses in Distant Active Galaxies and Quasars. II. Improved Optical and UV Scaling Relationships
• Revisiting the Unified Model of Active Galactic Nuclei
• AGN Black Hole Masses and Bolometric Luminosities
• The 70 Month Swift-BAT All-Sky Hard X-Ray Survey
• 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
• First Light for GRAVITY: Phase Referencing Optical Interferometry for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer
• Piecing Together the X-ray Background: Bolometric Corrections for Active Galactic Nuclei
• Reverberation Measurements of the Inner Radius of the Dust Torus in Nearby Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey I: Spectral Measurements, Derived Quantities, and AGN Demographics
• X-ray Spectral Properties of the BAT AGN Sample
• Spatially resolved rotation of the broad-line region of a quasar at sub-parsec scale
• Starburst and AGN activity in ultraluminous infrared galaxies
• Reverberation Measurements of the Inner Radius of the Dust Torus in 17 Seyfert Galaxies
• The innermost region of AGN tori: implications from the HST/NICMOS Type 1 point sources and near-IR reverberation
• A Compton-thick Wind in the High Luminosity Quasar, PDS 456
• The subarcsecond mid-infrared view of local active galactic nuclei: I. The N- and Q-band imaging atlas
• Bolometric correction factors for Active Galactic Nuclei
• Dusty winds in active galactic nuclei: reconciling observations with models
• Mapping the radial structure of AGN tori
• The power output of local obscured and unobscured AGN: crossing the absorption barrier with Swift/BAT and IRAS
• The innermost dusty structure in active galactic nuclei as probed by the Keck interferometer
• Mid-infrared interferometry of 23 AGN tori: On the significance of polar-elongated emission
• The multiwavelength variability of 3C 273
• The Swift/BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS) -- VI. The Gamma_X - L/L_Edd relation
• An image of the dust sublimation region in the nucleus of NGC 1068
• Kinematics of the Broad-line Region of 3C 273 from a Ten-year Reverberation Mapping Campaign
• Mid-infrared properties of nearby low-luminosity AGN at high angular resolution
• The Scattering and Intrinsic Structure of Sagittarius A* at Radio Wavelengths
• Interferometer Observations of Subparsec-scale Infrared Emission in the Nucleus of NGC 4151
• {\it NuSTAR} Reveals an Intrinsically X-ray Weak Broad Absorption Line Quasar in the Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxy Markarian 231
• The Swift BAT-detected Seyfert 1 Galaxies: X-ray Broadband Properties and Warm Absorbers
• Exploring the inner region of Type 1 AGNs with the Keck interferometer
• A dust-parallax distance of 19 megaparsecs to the supermassive black hole in NGC 4151
• On marginally resolved objects in optical interferometry
• The GRAVITY fringe tracker
• A remarkable long-term light curve, and deep, low-state spectroscopy: Swift & XMM-Newton monitoring of the NLS1 galaxy Mkn 335
• Spectropolarimetry of Seyfert 1 galaxies with equatorial scattering: Black hole masses and Broad Line Region characteristics
• Optical and Near-IR long-term monitoring of NGC3783 and MR2251-178: evidence for variable near-IR emission from thin accretion discs
• Quasar Parallax: a Method for Determining Direct Geometrical Distances to Quasars
• VLTI/AMBER observations of the Seyfert nucleus of NGC 3783
• Updating quasar bolometric luminosity corrections. II. Infrared bolometric corrections
• Optical and infrared observations of the luminous quasar PDS 456: a radio-quiet analogue of 3C 273?
• The Ionized Absorber and Nuclear Environment of IRAS 13349+2438: Multi-wavelength insights from coordinated Chandra HETGS, HST STIS, HET, and Spitzer IRS
• Extreme X-ray variability in the luminous quasar PDS 456
• Simultaneous X-ray and infrared variability in the quasar 3C273 II: Confirmation of the correlation and X-ray lag
• Sub-milliarcsecond Optical Interferometry of the HMXB BP Cru with VLTI/GRAVITY
• Infrared polarimetry of Mrk 231: Scattering off hot dust grains in the central core

Cited by in corpus (48)

• Infrared Echoes of Optical Tidal Disruption Events: ~1% Dust Covering Factor or Less at sub-parsec Scale
• The spatially resolved broad line region of IRAS 09149-6206
• The central parsec of NGC 3783: a rotating broad emission line region, asymmetric hot dust structure, and compact coronal line region
• The Galaxy Activity, Torus and Outflow Survey (GATOS): II. Torus and polar dust emission in nearby Seyfert galaxies
• Testing broad line region models with Reverberation Mapping
• The dusty heart of Circinus: I. Imaging the circumnuclear dust in N-band
• Infrared Spectral Energy Distribution and Variability of Active Galactic Nuclei: Clues to the Structure of Circumnuclear Material
• The picture of BLR in 2.5-D FRADO: Dynamics & Geometry
• Collimation of the relativistic jet in the quasar 3C 273
• Exploring the link between C IV outflow kinematics and sublimation-temperature dust in quasars
• First Light for GRAVITY Wide: Large Separation Fringe Tracking for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer
• Radiation pressure on dust explains the Low Ionized Broad Emission Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Dust Reverberation of 3C273: torus structure and lag -- luminosity relation
• Multiphase Gas Nature in the Sub-parsec Region of the Active Galactic Nuclei I: Dynamical Structures of Dusty and Dust-free Outflow
• Spectroastrometry and Reverberation Mapping: the Mass and Geometric Distance of the Supermassive Black Hole in the Quasar 3C 273
• Multiwavelength observations of the extraordinary accretion event AT2021lwx
• Dust-driven wind as a model of Broad Absorption Line quasars
• VLTI/GRAVITY Interferometric Measurements of Innermost Dust Structure Sizes around AGNs
• The Subarcsecond Mid-Infrared View of Local Active Galactic Nuclei. IV. The L- and M-band Imaging Atlas
• Chemical abundances along the quasar main sequence
• Resolving the Hot Dust Disk of ESO323-G77
• The dust sublimation region of the Type 1 AGN NGC4151 at a hundred micro-arcsecond scale as resolved by the CHARA Array interferometer
• Mid-Infrared Outbursts in Nearby Galaxies: Nuclear Obscuration and Connections to Hidden Tidal Disruption Events and Changing-Look Active Galactic Nuclei
• Estimation of the size and structure of the broad line region using Bayesian approach
• The role of grain size in AGN torus dust models
• Dust Reverberation Mapping of Z229-15
• Dust Reverberation Mapping of Type 2 AGN NGC 2110 Realized with X-ray and 3-5 $\mu$m IR monitoring
• Potential and sky coverage for off-axis fringe tracking in optical long baseline interferometry
• Velocity-inverted three-dimensional distribution of the gas clouds in the Type 2 AGN NGC1068
• Differential Interferometric Signatures of Close Binaries of Supermassive Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei: II. Merged Broad Line Regions
• Chromatically modelling the parsec scale dusty structure in the centre of NGC1068
• JWST reveals the diversity of nuclear obscuring dust in nearby AGN: nuclear isolation of MIRI/MRS datacubes and continuum spectral fitting
• A complex dust morphology in the high-luminosity AGN Mrk 876
• Determining sub-parsec supermassive black hole binary orbits with infrared interferometry
• TLDR: Time Lag/Delay Reconstructor
• Dust Reverberation Mapping and Light-Curve Modelling of Zw229-015
• Detection of eccentric close-binary supermassive black holes with incomplete interferometric data
• I Zw 1 and H0557-385: The Dusty Tori of Two High Eddington AGNs Observed in the MATISSE LM-Bands
• Polarimetric Reverberation Mapping in Medium-Band Filters
• Continuum polarization reverberation mapping of AGNs
• Equatorial orbits and imaging of hairy cubic Galileon black holes
• Amoeba: An AGN Model of Optical Emissions Beyond steady-state Accretion discs
• Self-consistent population synthesis of AGN from observational constraints in the X-rays
• The Binding Energies of Atoms on Amorphous Silicate Dust: A Computational Study
• The first spectroscopic IR reverberation programme on Mrk 509
• Towards an observationally motivated AGN dusty torus model -- II. The roles of density distribution and chemical composition of the dust
• VLTI-GRAVITY observations of blazars
• The optical-infrared relation for active galactic nuclei: The role of contaminations