Investigating the Structure of the Windy Torus in Quasars

TL;DR

This paper explores magneto-hydrodynamic wind models for quasar tori, examining their properties and predictions for infrared emission, and assesses their ability to explain observed quasar characteristics.

Contribution

It extends dusty wind models by exploring parameter variations and predicts observable quasar properties, highlighting strengths and limitations of current models.

Findings

Models match observed mid-IR power and warm absorber column densities.

Predicts near-IR bump correlates with L/L_Edd, not just luminosity.

Identifies shortcomings in explaining luminosity-dependent covering fractions.

Abstract

Thermal mid-infrared emission of quasars requires an obscuring structure that can be modeled as a magneto-hydrodynamic wind in which radiation pressure on dust shapes the outflow. We have taken the dusty wind models presented by Keating and collaborators that generated quasar mid-infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs), and explored their properties (such as geometry, opening angle, and ionic column densities) as a function of Eddington ratio and X-ray weakness. In addition, we present new models with a range of magnetic field strengths and column densities of the dust-free shielding gas interior to the dusty wind. We find this family of models -- with input parameters tuned to accurately match the observed mid-IR power in quasar SEDs -- provides reasonable values of the Type 1 fraction of quasars and the column densities of warm absorber gas, though it does not explain a purely luminosity-dependent covering fraction for either. Furthermore, we provide predictions of the cumulative distribution of E(B-V) values of quasars from extinction by the wind and the shape of the wind as imaged in the mid-infrared. Within the framework of this model, we predict that the strength of the near-infrared bump from hot dust emission will be correlated primarily with L/L_Edd rather than luminosity alone, with scatter induced by the distribution of magnetic field strengths. The empirical successes and shortcomings of these models warrant further investigations into the composition and behaviour of dust and the nature of magnetic fields in the vicinity of actively accreting supermassive black holes.