On the intrinsic AGN emission in far-infrared/sub-mm

TL;DR

This paper investigates the validity of the Symeonidis et al. (2016) AGN SED in the far-infrared/sub-millimeter range, addressing debates about its excess emission and comparing it with other models.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis demonstrating that the criticisms of the S16 AGN SED are unfounded, supporting its use as a reliable representation of AGN emission in the far-IR/sub-mm.

Findings

The S16 AGN SED's excess emission is justified by the analysis.

Criticisms of the S16 SED's overestimation are not supported.

The S16 SED remains a valid model for AGN far-IR/sub-mm emission.

Abstract

Far-infrared (far-IR)/sub-mm emission linked to AGN-heated dust has been a topic of contention for many years. Results have been diverse and various views have been presented. The empirical AGN SED derived by Symeonidis et al. (2016, hereafter S16) has more far-IR/sub-mm emission than other SEDs in the literature, and thus it is contested by other works which argue that its luminosity in that part of the spectrum is overestimated. Here, I investigate this topic and the concerns raised over the S16 AGN SED. I also examine the differences between the S16 AGN SED and other commonly-used empirical AGN SEDs. My findings show that the reasons proposed by other works as to why the S16 AGN SED is not a reasonable representation of AGN emission in the far-IR/sub-mm, do not hold.