The dusty heart of nearby active galaxies

Abstract

The dusty environments (= "dust tori'') of AGN are now in reach of observations. Following our paper I on ground-based mid-IR spectro-photometry (H\"onig et al. 2010), we present an upgrade to our radiative transfer model of 3-dimensional clumpy dust tori. The upgrade with respect to H\"onig et al. (2006) concerns an improved handling of the diffuse radiation field in the torus which is approximated by a statistical approach. The models are presented as tools to translate classical and interferometric observations into characteristic properties of the dust distribution. We compare model SEDs for different chemical and grain-size compositions of the dust and find that clouds with standard ISM dust and optical depth tau_V~50 appear in overall agreement with observed IR SEDs. By studying parameter dependencies, it is shown that type 1 AGN SEDs, in particular the mid-IR spectral index, can be used to constrain the radial dust cloud distribution power-law index 'a', while other parameters are more difficult to assess using SEDs only. Interferometry adds important additional information for modeling when interpreted simultaneously with the SED. Although type 2 AGN can, in principle, be used to constrain model parameters as well, obscuration effects make the analysis more ambiguous. We propose a simple, interferometry-based method to distinguish between "compact'' and "extended'' radial dust distributions without detailed modeling of the data and introduce a way to easily determine individual or sample average model parameters using the observed optical depth in the silicate feature and the mid-IR spectral index.