The largest mid-infrared atlas of active galactic nuclei at sub-arcsecond spatial scales

TL;DR

This paper provides the largest high-resolution mid-infrared atlas of 249 active galactic nuclei, enabling detailed dust emission analysis and insights into AGN unification and physical mechanisms across a wide luminosity range.

Contribution

It compiles all ground-based high-resolution MIR observations to date, including many new data, and explores MIR--X-ray correlations and intrinsic differences among AGN types.

Findings

Extended MIR--X-ray correlation over six orders of magnitude in luminosity.

Identification of dependencies of MIR--X-ray properties on AGN parameters.

Discussion of physical mechanisms and unification models for AGN.

Abstract

We present the largest mid-infrared atlas of active galactic nuclei at sub-arcsecond spatial scales containing 249 objects. It comprises all ground-based HR MIR observations performed to date. This catalog includes a large number of new observations. The photometry in multiple filters allows for characterizing the properties of the dust emission for most objects. Because of its size and characteristics, this sample is very well-suited for AGN unification studies. In particular, we discuss the enlarged MIR--X-ray correlation which extends over six orders of magnitude in luminosity and potentially probes different physical mechanisms. Finally, tests for intrinsic differences between the AGN types are presented and we discuss dependencies of MIR--X-ray properties with respect to fundamental AGN parameters such as accretion rate and the column density and covering factor of obscuring material.