The Origins of AGN Obscuration: The 'Torus' as a Dynamical, Unstable Driver of Accretion

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the AGN torus is a dynamically unstable, thick, and clumpy gas structure driven by gravitational instabilities, which actively facilitates black hole accretion rather than merely obscuring it.

Contribution

It introduces a dynamical model of the AGN torus as an unstable, thick, and clumpy gas disk driven by gravitational instabilities, challenging feedback-based explanations.

Findings

Predicted torus properties match observed gas surface densities and kinematics.

Torus scale heights and obscured fractions can be maintained without stellar feedback.

Clumpy gas distribution explains observed column density distributions.

Abstract

Multi-scale simulations have made it possible to follow gas inflows onto massive black holes (BHs) from galactic scales to the accretion disk. When sufficient gas is driven towards the BH, gravitational instabilities generically form lopsided, eccentric disks that propagate inwards. The lopsided stellar disk exerts a strong torque on the gas disk, driving inflows that fuel rapid BH growth. Here, we investigate whether the same gas disk is the 'torus' invoked to explain obscured AGN. The disk is generically thick and has characteristic ~1-10 pc sizes and masses resembling those required of the torus. The scale heights and obscured fractions of the predicted torii are substantial even in the absence of strong stellar feedback providing the vertical support. Rather, they can be maintained by strong bending modes and warps excited by the inflow-generating instabilities. Other properties commonly attributed to feedback processes may be explained by dynamical effects: misalignment between torus and host galaxy, correlations between local SFR and turbulent gas velocities, and dependence of obscured fractions on AGN luminosity or SFR. We compare the predicted torus properties with observations of gas surface density profiles, kinematics, scale heights, and SFR densities in AGN nuclei, and find that they are consistent. We argue that it is not possible to reproduce these observations and the observed column density (N_H) distribution without a clumpy gas distribution, but allowing for clumping on small scales the predicted N_H distribution is in good agreement with observations from 10^20-27 cm^-2. We examine how N_H scales with galaxy and AGN properties, and find that AGN feedback may be necessary to explain some trends with luminosity and/or redshift. The torus is not merely a bystander or passive fuel source for accretion, but is itself the mechanism driving accretion.