Evidence for a receding dust sublimation region around a supermassive black hole

TL;DR

This study provides direct evidence that the dust sublimation region around a supermassive black hole recedes following central brightening, with dust destruction and reformation timescales of several years, observed via near-IR interferometry.

Contribution

First direct interferometric measurement of a receding dust sublimation region in an AGN, linking radius changes to long-term flux variations and estimating dust reformation timescales.

Findings

Receding dust sublimation region observed after central brightening.

Dust destruction and reformation timescales are several years.

Radius correlates with long-term average flux over ~6 years.

Abstract

The near-IR emission in Type 1 AGNs is thought to be dominated by the thermal radiation from dust grains that are heated by the central engine in the UV/optical and are almost at the sublimation temperature. A brightening of the central source can thus further sublimate the innermost dust, leading to an increase in the radius of the near-IR emitting region. Such changes in radius have been indirectly probed by the measurements of the changes in the time lag between the near-IR and UV/optical light variation. Here we report direct evidence for such a receding sublimation region through the near-IR interferometry of the brightest Type 1 AGN in NGC4151. The increase in radius follows a significant brightening of the central engine with a delay of at least a few years, which is thus the implied destruction timescale of the innermost dust distribution. Compiling historic flux variations and radius measurements, we also infer the reformation timescale for the inner dust distribution to be several years in this galactic nucleus. More specifically and quantitatively, we find that the radius at a given time seems to be correlated with a long-term average of the flux over the previous several (~6) years, instead of the instantaneous flux. Finally, we also report measurements of three more Type 1 AGNs newly observed with the Keck interferometer, as well as the second epoch measurements for three other AGNs.