Interferometric measurements in the mid-infrared have shown that the sizes of the warm dust distributions in active galactic nuclei are consistent with their scaling with the square root of their luminosity. We carry out a more detailed analysis of this size-luminosity relation to investigate which of the general properties of the dusty tori in active galactic nuclei can be derived from this relation.
We improve the accuracy of the size-luminosity relation by adding a few additional size measurements from more recent interferometric observations and compare the measured sizes to those derived from hydrodynamical and radiative transfer models of AGN tori.
We find that a Gaussian approximation yields a reasonable estimate of the size of the brightness distribution, as long as the visibilities are within 0.2 {\leg} V {\leg} 0.9. The size estimates derived from the models are consistent with those determined from the measurements. However, the models predict a significant offset between the sizes derived for face-on and edge-on tori. This offset is not observed in the current data, probably because of the large uncertainties and low statistics of the present interferometric measurements. Furthermore, we find a ratio of the mid- to near-infrared sizes of approximately 30, whereas the first probes the body of the torus and the second is an estimate of the inner rim.
The size-luminosity relation of AGN tori using Gaussian size estimates is a very simple and effective tool to investigate the internal structure and geometry of AGN tori and obtain constraints on the differences between type 1 and type 2 AGN. However, to fully exploit the possibilities of investigating the nuclear distributions of gas and dust in AGN using this size-luminosity relation, more accurate interferometric measurements of a larger sample of AGN are needed.
The emission of warm dust dominates the mid-infrared spectra of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Only interferometric observations provide the necessary angular resolution to resolve the nuclear dust and to study its distribution and properties. The investigation of dust in AGN cores is hence one of the main science goals for the MID-infrared Interferometric instrument MIDI at the VLTI. As the first step, the feasibility of AGN observations was verified and the most promising sources for detailed studies were identified. This was carried out in a "snapshot survey" with MIDI using Guaranteed Time …
We investigated the gravitational microlensing of active galactic nucleus dusty tori in the case of lensed quasars in the infrared domain. The dusty torus is modeled as a clumpy two-phase medium. To obtain spectral energy distributions and images of tori at different wavelengths, we used the 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code SKIRT. A ray-shooting technique has been used to calculate microlensing magnification maps. We simulated microlensing by the stars in the lens galaxy for different configurations of the lensed system and different values of the torus parameters, in order to estimate (…
We present the results of a program of optical and near-infrared spectroscopic follow-up of candidate Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) selected in the mid-infrared. This survey selects both normal and obscured AGN closely matched in luminosity across a wide range, from Seyfert galaxies with bolometric luminosities L_bol~10^10L_sun, to highly luminous quasars (L_bol~10^14L_sun), and with redshifts from 0-4.3. Samples of candidate AGN were selected through mid-infrared color cuts at several different 24 micron flux density limits to ensure a range of luminosities at a given redshift. The survey cons…
(abridged) This paper is the second part of a work investigating the properties of dusty tori in AGN by means of multi-component SED fitting. It focuses on low luminosity, low redshift (z < 0.25) AGN selected among emission line galaxies as well as X-ray, radio and mid-infrared selected type 2 AGN samples from the literature. The available multi-band photometry covers the spectral range from the u-band up to 160 um. The observed SED of each object is fit to a set of multi-component models comprising a stellar component, a high optical depth torus and cold emission from a starburst (SB). The co…
We investigate the emission of active galactic nuclei (AGN) dusty tori in the infrared domain. Following theoretical predictions coming from hydrodynamical simulations, we model the dusty torus as a 3D two-phase medium with high-density clumps and low-density medium filling the space between the clumps. Spectral energy distributions (SED) and images of the torus at different wavelengths are obtained using 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code SKIRT. Our approach of generating clumpy structure allows us to model tori with single clumps, complex structures of merged clumps or interconnected spo…
We describe a mid-infrared (MIR) survey of local AGN to be conducted with the CanariCam instrument on the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). We will obtain MIR imaging and spectroscopy of a sample of ~100 AGN covering six orders of magnitude in AGN luminosity, and including different AGN classes (e.g., LINERs, Seyfert 1s and 2s, QSO). The main goals are: (1) to test unification of Type 1 and Type 2 AGN, (2) to study the star formation activity around AGN, and (3) to explore the role of the dusty torus in low-luminosity AGN.
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 properties of Type-1 and Type-2 Seyfert tori using clumpy torus models and a Bayesian approach to fit the infrared nuclear spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Thus, the sample considered here comprises 7 Type-1, 11 Type-2, and 3 intermediate-type Seyferts. The unresolved IR emission of the Seyfert 1 galaxies can be reproduced by a combination of dust heated by …
We have combined the CLASXS Chandra survey in Lockman with the Spitzer SWIRE survey data to study the X-ray-infrared connection for AGN. The sample consists of 401 X-ray-sources, of which 306 are detected by Spitzer, and a further 257 AGN candidates detected through their dust torus, but not by Chandra. For X-ray sources the X-ray hardness ratio has been modelled in terms of a power-law with absorption N(H). The optical and infrared data have been modelled in terms of our well-established optical galaxy and QSO templates, and infrared templates based on radiative transfer models. Our estimate …
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 central engine. The AGN-heated dust distributions turn out to be very compact with sizes on scales of about a parsec in the mid-infrared. Only infrared interferometry currently provides the necessary angular resolution to directly study the physical properties of this dust. Size estimates for the dust distributions derived from interferometric observations can be…
The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is an extremely capable and efficient black hole finder. We present a simple mid-infrared color criterion, W1-W2 \geq 0.8 (i.e., [3.4]-[4.6] \geq 0.8, Vega), which identifies 61.9 \pm 5.4 AGN candidates per deg2 to a depth of W2 = 15.0. This implies a much larger census of luminous AGN than found by typical wide-area surveys, attributable to the fact that mid-infrared selection identifies both unobscured (type 1) and obscured (type 2) AGN. Optical and soft X-ray surveys alone are highly biased towards only unobscured AGN, while this simple WISE se…
We compare the relative merits of AGN selection at X-ray and mid-infrared wavelengths using data from moderately deep fields observed by both Chandra and Spitzer. The X-ray-selected AGN sample and associated optical follow-up are drawn from the SEXSI program. Mid-infrared data in these fields are derived from Spitzer imaging, and mid-infrared AGN selection is accomplished primarily through application of the IRAC color-color AGN `wedge' selection technique. Nearly all X-ray sources in these fields which exhibit clear spectroscopic signatures of AGN activity have mid-infrared colors consistent …
We present near-to-mid-infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for 21 Seyfert galaxies, using subarcsecond resolution imaging data. Our aim is to compare the properties Seyfert 1 (Sy1) and Seyfert 2 (Sy2) tori using clumpy torus models and a Bayesian approach to fit the infrared (IR) nuclear SEDs. These dusty tori have physical sizes smaller than 6 pc radius, as derived from our fits. Active galactic nuclei (AGN) unification schemes account for a variety of observational differences in terms of viewing geometry. However, we find evidence that strong unification may not hold, and that the…
Spitzer spectroscopy has revealed that ~80% of submm galaxies (SMGs) are starburst (SB) dominated in the mid-infrared. Here we focus on the remaining ~20% that show signs of harboring powerful active galactic nuclei (AGN). We have obtained Spitzer-IRS spectroscopy of a sample of eight SMGs which are candidates for harboring powerful AGN on the basis of IRAC color-selection (S8/S4.5>2; i.e. likely power-law mid-infrared SEDs). SMGs with an AGN dominating (>50%) their mid-infrared emission could represent `missing link' sources in an evolutionary sequence involving a major merger. First of all, …
We investigated the emission of active galactic nuclei dusty tori in the infrared domain, with a focus on the 10 micron silicate feature. We modeled the dusty torus as a clumpy two-phase medium with high-density clumps and a low-density medium filling the space between the clumps. We employed a three-dimensional radiative transfer code to obtain spectral energy distributions and images of tori at different wavelengths. We calculated a grid of models for different parameters and analyzed the influence of these parameters on the shape of the mid-infrared emission. A corresponding set of clumps-o…
We present the distributions of geometrical covering factors of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) dusty tori (f2) using an X-ray selected complete sample of 227 AGN drawn from the Bright Ultra-hard XMM-Newton Survey. The AGN have z from 0.05 to 1.7, 2-10 keV luminosities between 10^42 and 10^46 erg/s and Compton-thin X-ray absorption. Employing data from UKIDSS, 2MASS and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer in a previous work we determined the rest-frame 1-20 microns continuum emission from the torus which we model here with the clumpy torus models of Nenkova et al. Optically classified type 1…
We present mid-IR interferometric observations of 6 type 1 AGNs at multiple baseline lengths of 27--130m, reaching high angular resolutions up to lambda/B~0.02 arcseconds. For two of the targets, we have simultaneous near-IR interferometric measurements as well. The multiple baseline data directly probe the radial distribution of the material on sub-pc scales. Within our sample, which is small but spans over ~2.5 orders of magnitudes in the UV/optical luminosity L of the central engine, the radial distribution clearly and systematically changes with luminosity. First, we show that the brightne…
The AGN-heated dust distribution (the "torus") is increasingly recognized not only as the absorber required in unifying models, but as a tracer for the reservoir that feeds the nuclear Super-Massive Black Hole. Yet, even its most basic structural properties (such as its extent, geometry and elongation) are unknown for all but a few archetypal objects. Since most AGNs are unresolved in the mid-infrared, we utilize the MID-infrared interferometric Instrument (MIDI) at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) that is sensitive to structures as small as a few milli-arcseconds (mas). We prese…
We investigate the optical morphologies of candidate active galaxies identified at radio, X-ray, and mid-infrared wavelengths. We use the Advanced Camera for Surveys General Catalog (ACS-GC) to identify 372, 1360, and 1238 AGN host galaxies from the VLA, XMM-Newton and Spitzer Space Telescope observations of the COSMOS field, respectively. We investigate both quantitative (GALFIT) and qualitative (visual) morphologies of these AGN host galaxies, split by brightness in their selection band. We find that the radio-selected AGN are most distinct, with a very low incidence of having unresolved opt…
We have developed an efficient Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) selection method using 18-band Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) fitting in mid-infrared (mid-IR). AGNs are often obscured by gas and dust, and those obscured AGNs tend to be missed in optical, UV and soft X-ray observations. Mid-IR light can help us to recover them in an obscuration free way using their thermal emission. On the other hand, Star-Forming Galaxies (SFG) also have strong PAH emission features in mid-IR. Hence, establishing an accurate method to separate populations of AGN and SFG is important. However, in previous mid-…
We compare mid-infrared emission-line properties, from high-resolution Spitzer spectra of a hard X-ray (14 -- 195 keV) selected sample of nearby (z < 0.05) AGN detected by the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) aboard Swift. The luminosity distribution for the mid-infrared emission-lines, [O IV] 25.89 micron, [Ne II] 12.81 micron, [Ne III] 15.56 micron and [Ne V] 14.32/24.32 micron, and hard X-ray continuum show no differences between Seyfert 1 and Seyfert 2 populations, however six newly discovered BAT AGNs are under-luminous in [O IV], most likely the result of dust extinction in the host galaxy. T…
Revealing what fraction of galaxies harbor AGN is central in understanding black hole accretion history of the Universe. However, optical and soft X-ray surveys miss the most highly obscured AGNs. Infrared (IR), instead, is more robust against absorption. Previous IR photometric surveys, however, only had 4 or 5 filters in mid-IR. Our AKARI North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) wide field sample has 18 filters in mid-IR (9 from AKARI, 4 from WISE, and 5 from Spitzer), for the first time, allowing a sophisticated mid-IR SED fitting diagnosis for a statistical number of sources (89178 over 5.4 deg$^2$). By …
The goal of this work is to study the obscuration properties of mid-infrared (mid-IR) selected AGN. For that purpose, we use {\it{WISE}} sources in the Stripe 82-XMM area to identify mid-IR AGN candidates, applying the Assef et al. criteria. Stripe 82 has optical photometry $\approx$\,2 times deeper than any single-epoch SDSS region. XMM-Newton observations cover $\sim$26\,deg$^2$. Applying the aforementioned criteria, 1946 IR AGN are selected. $\sim 78\%$ have SDSS detection, while 1/3 of them is detected in X-rays, at a flux limit of $\rm \sim 5 \times 10^{-15}\,erg\,s^{-1}\,cm^{-2}$. Our fi…
A large fraction of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are "invisible" in extant optical surveys due to either distance or dust-obscuration. The existence of this large population of dust-obscured, infrared-bright AGN is predicted by models of galaxy - supermassive black hole coevolution and is required to explain the observed X-ray and infrared backgrounds. Recently, infrared colour-cuts with WISE have identified a portion of this missing population. However, as the host galaxy brightness relative to that of the AGN increases, it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate between infrared emis…
The role of galaxy mergers in fueling active galactic nuclei (AGN) is still debated, owing partly to selection effects inherent to studies of the merger/AGN connection. In particular, luminous AGN are often heavily obscured in late-stage mergers. Mid-infrared (IR) color selection of dust-enshrouded AGN with, e.g., the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has uncovered large new populations of obscured AGN. However, this method is sensitive mainly to AGN that dominate emission from the host. To understand how these selection biases affect mid-IR studies of the merger/AGN connection, we si…
Clusters of galaxies have long been used as laboratories for the study of galaxy evolution, but despite intense, recent interest in feedback between AGNs and their hosts, the impact of environment on these relationships remains poorly constrained. We present results from a study of AGNs and their host galaxies found in low-redshift galaxy clusters. We fit model spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to the combined visible and mid-infrared (MIR) photometry of cluster members and use these model SEDs to determine stellar masses and star-formation rates (SFRs). We identify two populations of AGNs,…
The last decade has seen a dramatic confirmation that an in situ star formation is possible inside the inner parsec of the Milky Way. Here we suggest that giant planets, solid terrestrial-like planets, comets and asteroids may also form in these environments, and that this may have observational implications for Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Like in debris discs around main sequence stars, collisions of large solid objects should initiate strong fragmentation cascades. The smallest particles in such a cascade - the microscopic dust - may provide a significant opacity. We put a number of observ…
In this research, we provide a new, efficient method to select infrared (IR) active galatic nucleus (AGN). In the past, AGN selection in IR had been established by many studies using color-color diagrams. However, those methods have a problem in common that the number of bands is limited. The AKARI North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) survey was carried out by the AKARI Infrared Camera (IRC), which has 9 filters in mid-IR with a continuous wavelength coverage from 2 to 24$μ$m$^{-1}$. Based on the intrinsic different mid-IR features of AGN and star-forming galaxies (SFGs), we performed SED fitting to sepa…
In contrast to massive, bulge hosting galaxies, very few supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are known in either low mass, or bulgeless galaxies. Such a population could provide clues to the origins of SMBHs and to secular pathways for their growth. Using the all-sky Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) survey, and bulge-to-disk decompositions from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7, we report the discovery of a population of local (z<0.3) bulgeless disk galaxies with extremely red mid-infrared colors highly suggestive of a dominant active galactic nucleus (AGN), despite hav…
Using data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) we show that the mid infrared (MIR) colors of low-luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs) are significanlty different from those of post-asymptotic giant branch stars (PAGBs). This is due to a difference in spectral energy distribution (SEDs), the LLAGNs showing a flat component due to an AGN. Consistent with this interpretation we show that in a MIR color-color diagram the LINERs and the Seyfert~2s follow a power law with specific colors that allow to distinguish them from each other, and from star forming galaxies, according to their present le…
We present Spitzer 7-38um spectra for a 24um flux limited sample of galaxies at z~0.7 in the COSMOS field. The detailed high-quality spectra allow us to cleanly separate star formation (SF) and active galactic nucleus (AGN) in individual galaxies. We first decompose mid-infrared Luminosity Functions (LFs). We find that the SF 8um and 15um LFs are well described by Schechter functions. AGNs dominate the space density at high luminosities, which leads to the shallow bright-end slope of the overall mid-infrared LFs. The total infrared (8-1000um) LF from 70um selected galaxies shows a shallower br…
We present luminosity functions derived from a spectroscopic survey of AGN selected from Spitzer Space Telescope imaging surveys. Selection in the mid-infrared is significantly less affected by dust obscuration. We can thus compare the luminosity functions of the obscured and unobscured AGN in a more reliable fashion than by using optical or X-ray data alone. We find that the AGN luminosity function can be well described by a broken power-law model in which the break luminosity decreases with redshift. At high redshifts ($z>1.6$), we find significantly more AGN at a given bolometric luminosity…
We present a highly reliable and efficient mid-infrared colour-based selection technique for luminous active galactic nuclei (AGN) using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) survey. Our technique is designed to identify objects with red mid-infrared power-law spectral energy distributions. We studied the dependency of our mid-infrared selection on the AGN intrinsic luminosity and the effectiveness of our technique to uncover obscured AGN missed in X-ray surveys. To do so we used two samples of luminous AGN independently selected in hard X-ray and optical surveys. We used the largest …
We classify the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of 431,038 sources in the 9 sq. deg Bootes field of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS). There are up to 17 bands of data available per source, including ultraviolet (GALEX), optical (NDWFS), near-IR (NEWFIRM), and mid-infrared (IRAC/MIPS) data, as well as spectroscopic redshifts for ~20,000 objects, primarily from the AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey (AGES). We fit galaxy, AGN, stellar, and brown dwarf templates to the observed SEDs, which yield spectral classes for the Galactic sources and photometric redshifts and galaxy/AGN luminositi…
Past studies of compact active galactic nuclei (AGNs), the dominant population at high radio frequencies, selected them using flat spectral index criteria. This biases the sample due to the steepening of AGN spectra at high radio frequencies. We improve upon this by selecting 3610 compact AGNs using their angular size information ($\sim$0.15 arcsec scale) from the Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) high-angular-resolution catalogue. We cross-match these against the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer All-WISE catalogue and present a catalogue with 3300 (91%) matches, 91 (3%) rejects and 219 (6…
We present Spitzer InfraRed Spectrograph (IRS) low-resolution spectra of 16 spectroscopically selected post-starburst quasars (PSQs) at z ~ 0.3. The optical spectra of these broad-lined active galactic nuclei (AGNs) simultaneously show spectral signatures of massive intermediate-aged stellar populations making them good candidates for studying the connections between AGNs and their hosts. The resulting spectra show relatively strong polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission features at 6.2 and 11.3\micron and a very weak silicate feature, indicative of ongoing star formation and low dust …
We present high spatial resolution MIR observations for several nearby radio loud active galactic nuclei (RLAGN), which were obtained using the Gemini North and South telescopes. Of the six observed objects, we detected five in the Si-2 (8.7 microns) and Si-6 (12.3 microns) filters, of which two objects show some evidence of low level extended emission surrounding the unresolved nucleus. In Pictor A, we also obtained an image in Qs (18.3 microns) that has a flux of only half that seen in the Spitzer image, suggesting structure on arcsecond scales. We also used the Si-6 (12.3 microns) flux meas…
We quantify the active galactic nucleus (AGN) contribution to the mid-infrared (mid-IR) and the total infrared (IR, 8-1000micron) emission in a complete volume-limited sample of 53 local luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs). We decompose the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) low-resolution 5-38micron spectra of the LIRGs into AGN and starburst components using clumpy torus models and star-forming galaxy templates, respectively. We find that 50% (25/50) of local LIRGs have an AGN component detected with this method. There is good agreement between these AGN detections through mid-IR spectral de…
In order to understand the interaction between the central black hole and the whole galaxy or their co-evolution history along with cosmic time, a complete census of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is crucial. However, AGNs are often missed in optical, UV and soft X-ray observations since they could be obscured by gas and dust. A mid-infrared (mid-IR) survey supported by multiwavelength data is one of the best ways to find obscured AGN activities because it suffers less from extinction. Previous large IR photometric surveys, e.g., $WISE$ and $Spitzer$, have gaps between the mid-IR filters. Theref…
I present a review of X-ray and mid-IR surveys for Compton-thick Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). These are the most highly obscured sources having hydrogen column densities >1.5x10^24 cm-2. Key surveys in the local Universe are presented including the high energy SWIFT/BAT and INTEGRAL surveys, mid-IR and also optical surveys. Recently, deep X-ray surveys with Chandra and XMM-Newton have produced a number of candidate Compton-thick AGN at higher redshift primarily in the Chandra Deep Field South region. In addition, mid-IR surveys with Spitzer have helped to develop novel complementary technique…
We study a combined sample of 264 star-forming, 51 composite, and 73 active galaxies using optical spectra from SDSS and mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectra from the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph. We examine optical and mid-IR spectroscopic diagnostics that probe the amount of star formation and relative energetic contributions from star formation and an active galactic nucleus (AGN). Overall we find good agreement between optical and mid-IR diagnostics. Misclassifications of galaxies based on the SDSS spectra are rare despite the presence of dust obscuration. The luminosity of the [NeII] 12.8 μm em…
Advancements in infrared IR open up the possibility to spatially resolve AGN on the parsec-scale level and study the circumnuclear dust distribution, commonly referred to as the "dust torus", that is held responsible for the type 1/type 2 dichotomy of AGN. We used the mid-IR beam combiner MIDI together with the 8m telescopes at the VLTI to observe the nucleus of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 424, achieving an almost complete coverage of the uv-plane accessible by the available telescope configurations. We detect extended mid-IR emission with a relatively baseline- and model-independent mid-IR half-…
We investigate the mid- (MIR) to far-infrared (FIR) properties of a nearly complete sample of local Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) detected in the Swift/BAT all sky hard X-ray (14-195 keV) survey, based on the cross correlation with the AKARI infrared survey catalogs complemented by those with IRAS and WISE. Out of 135 non-blazer AGNs in the Swift/BAT 9 month catalog, we obtain the MIR photometric data for 128 sources either in the 9, 12, 18, 22, and/or 25 um band. We find good correlation between their hard X-ray and MIR luminosities over 3 orders of magnitude (42< log lambda L_{lambda}(9, 18 …
We present ground-based high-spatial resolution mid-infrared (MIR) observations of 20 nearby low-luminosity AGN (LLAGN) with VLT/VISIR and the preliminary analysis of a new sample of 10 low-luminosity Seyferts observed with Gemini/Michelle. LLAGN are of great interest because these objects are the most common among active galaxies, especially in the nearby universe. Studying them in great detail makes it possible to investigate the AGN evolution over cosmic timescale. Indeed, many LLAGN likely represent the final stage of an AGN's lifetime. We show that even at low luminosities and accretion r…
We analyze the link between active galactic nuclei (AGN) and mid-infrared flux using dust radiative transfer calculations of starbursts realized in hydrodynamical simulations. Focusing on the effects of galaxy dust, we evaluate diagnostics commonly used to disentangle AGN and star formation in ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs). We examine these quantities as a function of time, viewing angle, dust model, AGN spectrum, and AGN strength in merger simulations representing two possible extremes of the ULIRG population: one is a typical gas-rich merger at z ~ 0, and the other is characterist…
Despite the hypothesized similar face-on viewing angles, the infrared emission of type-1 AGNs has diverse spectral energy distribution (SED) shapes that deviate substantially from the well-characterized quasar templates. Motivated by the commonly-seen UV-optical obscuration and the discovery of parsec-scale mid-IR polar dust emission in some nearby AGNs, we develop semi-empirical SED libraries for reddened type-1 AGNs built on the quasar intrinsic templates, assuming low-level extinction caused by an extended distribution of large dust grains. We demonstrate that this model can reproduce the n…
We present mid-infrared (MIR, 7.5-13.5 $μ$m) imaging and spectroscopy observations obtained with the CanariCam (CC) instrument on the 10.4m Gran Telescopio CANARIAS for a sample of 20 nearby, MIR bright and X-ray luminous QSOs. We find that for the majority of QSOs the MIR emission is unresolved at angular scales nearly 0.3 arcsec, corresponding to physical scales $<600$ pc. We find that the higher-spatial resolution CC spectra have similar shapes to those obtained with Spitzer/IRS, and hence we can assume that the spectra are not heavily contaminated by extended emission in the host galaxy. W…
We investigate the use of mid-infrared PAH bands, continuum and emission lines as probes of star-formation and AGN activity in a sample of 100 `normal' and local (z~0.1) galaxies. The MIR spectra were obtained with the Spitzer IRS as part of the Spitzer-SDSS-GALEX Spectroscopic Survey (SSGSS) which includes multi-wavelength photometry from the UV to the FIR and optical spectroscopy. The spectra were decomposed using PAHFIT (Smith et al. 2007), which we find to yield PAH equivalent widths (EW) up to ~30 times larger than the commonly used spline methods. Based on correlations between PAH, conti…
We present new estimates of redshift-dependent luminosity functions of IR lines detectable by SPICA/SAFARI and excited both by star formation and by AGN activity. The new estimates improve over previous work by using updated evolutionary models and dealing in a self consistent way with emission of galaxies as a whole, including both the starburst and the AGN component. New relationships between line and AGN bolometric luminosity have been derived and those between line and IR luminosities of the starburst component have been updated. These ingredients were used to work out predictions for the …
