Related papers: Looking for the Wind in the Dust
Substantial evidence points to dusty, geometrically thick tori obscuring the central engines of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), but so far no mechanism satisfactorily explains why cool dust in the torus remains in a puffy geometry.…
Interstellar dust in nebulae and in the diffuse interstellar medium of galaxies contains a component which responds to illumination by ultraviolet photons with efficient luminescence in the 500 nm to 1000 nm spectral range, known as…
Infrared interferometry of local AGN has revealed a warm (~300K-400K) polar dust structure that cannot be trivially explained by the putative dust torus of the unified model. This led to the development of the disk+wind scenario which…
[abridged] Radiation pressure on dust grains may be an important mechanism in driving winds in a wide variety of astrophysical systems. However, the efficiency of the coupling between the radiation field and the dusty gas is poorly…
We present VLT-SINFONI near infra-red spectra of 26 new heavily reddened quasar candidates selected from the UKIDSS-LAS, VISTA VHS and VIKING imaging surveys. This new sample extends our reddened quasar search to both brighter and fainter…
Determining accurate orbits of binary stars with powerful winds is challenging. The dense outflows increase the effective photospheric radius, precluding direct observation of the Keplerian motion; instead the observables are broad lines…
We explore the possibility that the steepening observed shortward of 1000A in the energy distribution of quasars may result from absorption by dust, being either intrinsic to the quasar environment or intergalactic. We find that a dust…
Thermal models for the quasar Big Blue Bump generally lead to bound-free continuum features, which may be in absorption or emission. Searches for Lyman edges attributable to quasar atmospheres (in particular accretion disk atmospheres) have…
Submillimeter (and in some cases millimeter) wavelength continuum measurements are presented for a sample of 40 active galactic nuclei (probably all quasars) lensed by foreground galaxies. The object of this study is to use the lensing…
In this work the thermal emission over cm to sub-mm wavelengths from the winds in short-period O+O-star binaries is investigated (potential non-thermal emission is presently ignored). The calculations are based on three-dimensional…
In this work, we investigate the role of emission by dust at infrared wavelengths in the absorption of gamma radiation from distant extragalactic sources. We use an existing EBL model based on direct starlight emission at UV/visible and…
One primary difficulty in understanding the nature of the putative accretion disk in the central engine of AGNs is that some of its key intrinsic spectral signatures are buried under the emissions from the surrounding regions, i.e. the…
We investigate the luminosity and redshift dependence of the quasar continuum by means of composite spectrum using a large non-BAL radio-quiet quasar sample drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Quasar continuum slopes in the UV-Opt band…
A possible source of $\gamma$-ray photons observed from the jets of blazars is inverse Compton scattering by relativistic electrons of infrared seed photons from a hot, dusty torus in the nucleus. We use observations from the Spitzer Space…
Mass loss is a key process in the evolution of massive stars, and must be understood quantitatively to be successfully included in broader astrophysical applications. In this review, we discuss various aspects of radiation driven mass loss,…
The central engines of Seyfert galaxies are thought to be enshrouded by geometrically thick gas and dust structures. In this article, we derive observable properties for a self-consistent model of such toroidal gas and dust distributions,…
Broad absorption line (BAL) outflows are commonly detected in active galactic nuclei (AGN), but their driving mechanism remains poorly constrained. Here we investigate whether radiation pressure on dust can adequately explain the BAL…
An integral part of the Unified Model for Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) is an axisymmetric obscuring medium, which is commonly depicted as a torus of gas and dust surrounding the central engine. However, a robust, dynamical model of the…
Long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are likely associated with the collapse of massive stars, which produce dust and are born in dusty environments. Absorption and scattering of ultraviolet/X-ray photons from the prompt, optical flash and…
Interstellar dust at high Galactic latitudes can influence astronomical foreground subtraction, produce diffuse scattered light, and soften the ultraviolet spectra of quasars. In a sample of 94 sight lines toward quasars at high latitude…