Understanding active galactic nuclei using near-infrared high angular resolution polarimetry I : MontAGN - stokes comparison

TL;DR

This paper compares two Monte Carlo radiative transfer codes, MontAGN and STOKES, to understand the polarization of active galactic nuclei and validate their use for simulating polarimetric observations across various wavelengths.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of MontAGN and STOKES codes using a common AGN model to validate their results for polarimetric studies of AGN.

Findings

Codes produce consistent polarization results for the simple AGN model

Preliminary validation supports using these codes for multi-wavelength AGN polarization simulations

Set the stage for detailed analysis of NGC 1068 polarimetric data

Abstract

In this first research note of a series of two, we present a comparison between two Monte Carlo radiative transfer codes: MontAGN and STOKES. Both were developed in order to better understand the observed polarisation of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Our final aim is to use these radiative transfer codes to simulate the polarisation maps of a prototypical type-2 radio-quiet AGN on a wide range of wavelengths, from the infrared band with MontAGN to the X-ray energies with STOKES. Doing so, we aim to analyse in depth the recent SPHERE/IRDIS polarimetric observations conducted on NGC 1068. In order to validate the codes and obtain preliminary results, we set for both codes a common and simple AGN model, and compared their polaro-imaging results.