Are SMBHs shrouded by "super-Oort" clouds of comets and asteroids?

TL;DR

This paper proposes that solid objects like comets and asteroids form near SMBHs and contribute to AGN obscuration through fragmentation cascades, affecting dust opacity and torus properties across luminosities.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that solid object fragmentation near SMBHs influences AGN obscuring structures and explains certain dust properties, a novel perspective in AGN studies.

Findings

Fragmentation cascades can produce significant dust opacity in AGN torii.

Obscuring torii from asteroid fragmentation disappear at both low and high AGN luminosities.

Large dust particles may result from these cascades, explaining unusual absorption features.

Abstract

The last decade has seen a dramatic confirmation that an in situ star formation is possible inside the inner parsec of the Milky Way. Here we suggest that giant planets, solid terrestrial-like planets, comets and asteroids may also form in these environments, and that this may have observational implications for Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Like in debris discs around main sequence stars, collisions of large solid objects should initiate strong fragmentation cascades. The smallest particles in such a cascade - the microscopic dust - may provide a significant opacity. We put a number of observational and physical constraints on AGN obscuring torii resulting from such fragmentation cascades. We find that torii fed by fragmenting asteroids disappear at both low and high AGN luminosities. At high luminosities, $L \sim L_{\rm Edd}$, where $L_{\rm Edd}$ is the Eddington limit, the AGN radiation pressure blows out the microscopic dust too rapidly. At low luminosities, on the other hand, the AGN discs may avoid gravitational fragmentation into stars and solids. We also note that these fragmentation cascades may be responsible for astrophysically "large" dust particles of approximately micrometer sizes that were postulated by some authors to explain unusual absorption properties of the AGN torii.