English

Obscuring fraction of active galactic nuclei implied by supernova and radiative feedbacks

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2020-02-12 v1

Abstract

We study the obscuring structure of circumnuclear disks (CNDs) by considering supernova (SN) feedbacks from nuclear starburst and the effect of anisotropic radiative pressure from AGNs. We suppose that the mass accretion onto a central supermassive black hole (SMBH) is triggered by SN-driven turbulence within CNDs, and we explore how the structures of CNDs depend on the BH mass (MBHM_{\rm BH}) and AGN luminosity (LAGNL_{\rm AGN}). We find that the obscuring fraction (fobsf_{\rm obs}) peaks at 10%\sim10\% of the Eddington luminosity (LEddL_{\rm Edd}), and its maximal value is fobs0.6f_\mathrm{obs} \sim 0.6 for less massive SMBHs (e.g., MBH<108MM_{\rm BH} < 10^{8}M_{\odot}). This is because the scale height of CNDs is determined by the SN-driven accretion for a smaller LAGNL_{\rm AGN}, while the dusty molecular gas in CNDs is blown away by the radiation pressure from AGNs beyond the critical luminosity. On the other hand, for massive SMBHs (e.g., MBH>108MM_{\rm BH} > 10^{8}M_{\odot}), fobsf_{\rm obs} is always smaller than 0.20.2, and it is almost independent of LAGNL_{\rm AGN} because the scale height of CNDs is mainly controlled by the maximal star-formation efficiency (C,maxC_{\rm *, max}) in CNDs. By comparison with the obscuring fractions suggested from the mid-infrared observations of nearby AGNs, the SN plus radiative feedback model with C,max=107yr1C_{\rm *, max} = 10^{-7}\, {\rm yr}^{-1} well reproduces the observations for MBH=108MM_\mathrm{BH} = 10^8 M_\odot. We also find that the intense starburst or the existence of dust-free absorbers inside CNDs are necessary, to explain X-ray observations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1912.02408,
  title  = {Obscuring fraction of active galactic nuclei implied by supernova and radiative feedbacks},
  author = {Nozomu Kawakatu and Keiichi Wada and Kohei Ichikawa},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1912.02408},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

17 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ