Dust in active nuclei. I. Evidence for "anomalous" properties

TL;DR

This paper presents observational evidence that dust in the circumnuclear regions of AGNs has different properties than Galactic dust, with lower extinction-to-gas ratios and evidence of larger grains, affecting classification schemes.

Contribution

It provides new observational evidence that dust in AGN nuclei differs from Galactic dust, suggesting larger grains dominate and altering extinction properties.

Findings

E(B-V)/N_H ratio is significantly lower than Galactic in various AGN classes.

Absence of prominent silicate and carbon absorption features supports different dust composition.

Large grains likely cause flatter, featureless extinction curves in AGN dust.

Abstract

We present observational evidences that dust in the circumnuclear region of AGNs has different properties than in the Galactic diffuse interstellar medium. By comparing the reddening of optical and infrared broad lines and the X-ray absorbing column density we find that the E(B-V)/N_H ratio is nearly always lower than Galactic by a factor ranging from ~3 up to ~100. Other observational results indicate that the Av/N_H ratio is significantly lower than Galactic in various classes of AGNs including intermediate type 1.8-1.9 Seyferts, hard X-ray selected and radio selected quasars, broad absorption line QSOs and grism selected QSOs. The lack of prominent absorption features at 9.7um (silicates) and at 2175A (carbon dip) in the spectra of Seyfert 2s and of reddened Seyfert 1s, respectively, add further evidence for dust in the circumnuclear region of AGNs being different from Galactic. These observational results indicate that the dust composition in the circumnuclear region of AGNs could be dominated by large grains, which make the extinction curve flatter, featureless and are responsible for the reduction of the E(B-V)/N_H and Av/N_H ratios. Regardless of the physical origin of these phenomena, the reduced dust absorption with respect to what expected from the gaseous column density should warn about a mismatch between the optical and the X-ray classification of the active galactic nuclei in terms of their obscuration.