New Mid-Infrared Diagnostic of the Dusty Torus Model for Seyfert Nuclei

Abstract

We propose a new diagnostic of the ``dusty torus'' model for Seyfert nuclei. Dust grains in the torus are heated by the nuclear continuum, and reradiate mostly in the mid-infrared wavelengths. From the torus geometry, it is predicted that the emission at lambda < 10 micron has strong dependence on the viewing angle. Since the dependence is predicted to be insignificant at lambda > 10 micron, we study the flux ratio between 3.5 micron (L band) and 25 micron; R(L,25) = log [(nu_3.5 um S_nu_3.5 um)/(nu_25 um S_nu_25 um)]. In three different samples (optically selected, X-ray selected, and infrared selected samples) of Seyfert galaxies, the observed values of R(L,25) between type 1 Seyferts (S1s) and type 2 Seyferts (S2s) are found to be clearly separated; R(L,25) > -0.6 for S1s while R(L,25) < -0.6 for S2s. This implies universality of their torus properties. With this result and the other observational characteristics, we investigate the most plausible torus model among those presented in Pier & Krolik (1992, 1993).