IR Emission from AGNs
Abstract
Description
Unified schemes of active galactic nuclei (AGN) require an obscuring dusty torus around the central engine. Torus sizes of hundreds of parsecs were deduced from early theoretical modeling efforts, but high-resolution IR observations now show that the torus size is no more than a few parsecs. This conflict is resolved when the clumpy nature of the torus is taken into account. The compact torus may be best understood when identified with the dusty, optically thick region of the wind coming off the central accretion disk.
To appear in the proceedings of "QSO Hosts: Evolution and Environment", Leiden, August 2005
To appear in the proceedings of "QSO Hosts: Evolution and Environment", Leiden, August 2005