AGN OBSCURATION THROUGH DUSTY, INFRARED-DOMINATED FLOWS. II. MULTIDIMENSIONAL, RADIATION-HYDRODYNAMICS MODELING

Journal Article · Thu Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 2012 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/747/1/8· OSTI ID:22016347

Dorodnitsyn, A; Kallman, T ^[1]; Bisnovatyi-Kogan, G S ^[2]

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1. Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 662, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
2. Space Research Institute, 84/32, Profsoyuznaya Street, Moscow (Russian Federation)

We explore a detailed model in which the active galactic nucleus (AGN) obscuration results from the extinction of AGN radiation in a global flow driven by the pressure of infrared radiation on dust grains. We assume that external illumination by UV and soft X-rays of the dusty gas located at approximately 1 pc away from the supermassive black hole is followed by a conversion of such radiation into IR. Using 2.5D, time-dependent radiation-hydrodynamics simulations in a flux-limited diffusion approximation we find that the external illumination can support a geometrically thick obscuration via outflows driven by infrared radiation pressure in AGN with luminosities greater than 0.05 L{sub edd} and Compton optical depth, {tau}{sub T} {approx}> 1.

• OSTI ID: 22016347
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 747; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ACCELERATION
APPROXIMATIONS
BLACK HOLES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS
COSMOLOGY
DUSTS
GALAXIES
HYDRODYNAMICS
ILLUMINANCE
INFRARED RADIATION
LUMINOSITY
SOFT X RADIATION
TIME DEPENDENCE