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Mid-Infrared Dusty Torus Sizes in Active Galactic Nuclei with Hβ Reverberation Mapping

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We compile optical and mid-infrared (MIR) light curves from the time-domain surveys (i.e., CRTS, PTF, ZTF and ASAS-SN) and WISE archive for a selected sample of active galactic nuclei (AGNs)… Click to show full abstract

We compile optical and mid-infrared (MIR) light curves from the time-domain surveys (i.e., CRTS, PTF, ZTF and ASAS-SN) and WISE archive for a selected sample of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with Hβ reverberation mapping (RM) measurements. We measure the time lags (and thus torus sizes) of W1 (∼3.4μm) and W2 (∼4.6μm) band light curves relative to the optical one using the MICA method. Through Hβ RM, the sample has well-measured AGN properties, therefore allowing us to reliably constrain the relations between torus sizes and AGN properties. We perform linear regressions for the relations between torus sizes and 5100 Å luminosities ($R\propto L_{5100}^{\beta }$) in two cases: β = 0.5 and β set free. The latter case yields β ≈ 0.37 ± 0.028 for both W1- and W2- bands, shallower than the expected value of 0.5, possibly due to the dependence of torus size on accretion rate. For β = 0.5, by combining with the previous K-band RM measurements, we obtain the characteristic BLR and tours sizes following RBLR: RK: RW1: RW2 = 1.0 : 6.2 : 9.2 : 11.2. We investigate the deviations of the W1- and W2-band observed torus sizes from the corresponding best-fit relations (with β = 0.5) and find that they both are correlated with accretion rate. As the accretion rate increases, the torus sizes tend to be shortened compared to the anticipated sizes from the best-fit relations, similar to the behavior found in BLRs. Such behaviors can be explained by the self-shadowing effect of slim disks. This is further supported by ratios of the W1- and W2-bands torus sizes to BLR sizes, which do not show significant correlations with AGN properties.

Keywords: active galactic; torus; mid infrared; torus sizes; reverberation mapping; galactic nuclei

Journal Title: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Year Published: 2023

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