The toroidal obscuration of active galactic nuclei

2008/05/23 by Moshe Elitzur
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysical jet #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Scheme (mathematics) #Toroid #Torus #Unification #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.newar.2008.06.010

To appear in proceedings of "Active Galactic Nuclei at the highest angular resolution: theory and observations", 2007 summer school, Torun, Poland

arxiv created 2008/05/23 · openalex publication_date 2008/06/08 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

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 the torus properties, describe the handling and implications of its clumpy nature and present speculations about its dynamic origin.

Citations

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