Related papers: Revisiting the Unified Model of Active Galactic Nu…
Observations give strong support for the unification scheme of active galactic nuclei. The scheme is premised on toroidal obscuration of the central engine by dusty clouds that are individually very optically thick. These lectures summarize…
We propose a plausible mechanism to explain the formation of the so-called "obscuring tori" around active galactic nuclei (AGNs) based on three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations including radiative feedback from the central source. The…
We present the first results from a mid-infrared survey of local Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) using the CanariCam (CC) instrument on the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). We are obtaining sub-arcsecond angular resolution (0.3-0.6…
The Unified Model of Active Galactic Nuclei (UMAGN) is a comprehensive theoretical framework aimed at elucidating the diverse observations of AGN, encompassing quasars and Seyfert galaxies. The Model attributes the observed variations to…
Dedicated searches generally find a decreasing fraction of obscured Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) with increasing AGN luminosity. This has often been interpreted as evidence for a decrease of the covering factor of the AGN torus with…
We present new mid-infrared (MIR) imaging data for three Type-1 Seyfert galaxies obtained with T-ReCS on the Gemini-South Telescope at subarcsecond resolution. Our aim is to enlarge the sample studied in a previous work to compare the…
The unified model of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) proposes that different AGN optical spectral types are caused by different viewing angles with respect to an obscuring 'torus'. Therefore, this model predicts that type 1 and type 2 AGNs…
The active galactic nucleus (AGN) phenomena results from a supermassive black hole accreting its surrounding gaseous and dusty material. The infrared (IR) regime provides most of the information to characterize the dusty structures that…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are one of the most luminous objects in the Universe, emitting powerful continuum and line emission across all wavelength bands. They represent an important link in the investigations of the galaxy evolution and…
One of the most important problems in the study of active galaxies is understanding the detailed geometry, physics, and evolution of the central engines and their environments. The leading models involve an accretion disk and torus…
The infrared is a key wavelength regime for probing the dusty, obscured nuclear regions of active galaxies. We present results from an infrared study of 87 nearby Seyfert galaxies using the Spitzer Space Telescope and ground-based…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are complex phenomena. At the heart of an AGN is a relativistic accretion disk around a spinning supermassive black hole (SMBH) with an X-ray emitting corona and, sometimes, a relativistic jet. On larger scales,…
Heavily obscured Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), especially Compton-thick sources with line-of-sight column density ($N_{\rm H,los}$) $>$ 10$^{24}$ cm$^{-2}$, are critical to understanding supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth and the origin…
According to the unified model of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), a putative dusty torus plays an important role in determining their external appearance. However, very limited information is known about the physical properties of the torus.…
The torus concept as an essential structural component of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is generally accepted. Here, the situation is discussed when the torus "twisting" by the radiation or wind transforms it into a dipole toroidal vortex…
Warm gas and dust surround the innermost regions of active galactic nuclei (AGN). They provide the material for accretion onto the super-massive black hole and they are held responsible for the orientation-dependent obscuration of the…
I give a brief review of the observational properties of low-luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs). I outline some unresolved issues in the study of LLAGNs, emphasizing the uncertainties in the role of the truncated thin accretion disk, the dusty…
The circumnuclear material around Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is one of the essential components of the obscuration-based unification model. However, our understanding of the circumnuclear material in terms of its geometrical shape,…
Physical processes such as re-ignition, enhancement, and fading of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are not entirely understood because the timeline of these events is expected to last many years. However, it is well known that the differences…
Deep surveys of {\em Chandra} and {\em HST} (Hubble Space Telescope) show that active galactic nucleus (AGN) populations are changing with hard X-ray luminosities. This arises an interesting question whether the dusty torus is evolving with…