Constraints on the nuclear emission from the Circinus galaxy: the torus
Abstract
In the context of the unified model of Seyfert galaxies, we use observations from the literature and a radiative transfer model to investigate the near-IR to mm emission produced by the presumed torus in the Circinus galaxy, from 2microns to 1.3mm. From the infrared SED modelling, we find that the total luminosity (L_{IR}) in this wavelength range, consists of similar contributions from the torus and starburst with a ratio of nuclear luminosity to starburst luminosity (L_{NUC}/L_{SB}) approx. 0.8. By using a similar torus model to that of NGC1068, but without the conical dust, we find an upper limit to the outer torus radius of approx. 12pc with a best fit of approx. 2pc. The upper limit torus size estimated from the radiative transfer modelling is consistent with the 16pc torus radius estimated from near-IR imaging polarimetry of Circinus.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0102412,
title = {Constraints on the nuclear emission from the Circinus galaxy: the torus},
author = {M. Ruiz and A. Efstathiou and D. M. Alexander and J. Hough},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0102412},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
8 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS