Dust in Active Galactic Nuclei: Anomalous Silicate to Optical Extinction Ratios?
Abstract
Dust plays a central role in the unification theory of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). However, little is known about the nature (e.g., size, composition) of the dust which forms a torus around the AGN. In this Letter we report a systematic exploration of the optical extinction (AV) and the silicate absorption optical depth (τ9.7) of 110 type 2 AGNs. We derive AV from the Balmer decrement based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data, and τ9.7 from the Spitzer/Infrared Spectrograph data. We find that with a mean ratio of AV/τ9.7 ~ 5.5, the optical-to-silicate extinction ratios of these AGNs are substantially lower than that of the Galactic diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) for which AV/τ9.7 ~ 18.5. We argue that the anomalously low AV/τ9.7 ratio could be due to the predominance of larger grains in the AGN torus compared to that in the Galactic diffuse ISM.