Scaling Relations of the Dusty Torus with Luminosity and the Broad-Line Region

Abstract

We measure and compare the size of the dusty torus with active galactic nucleus (AGN) luminosity and the size of the broad-line region (BLR), using a sample of 182 AGNs with the best H$\beta$ lag measurements. After correcting for accretion-disk contamination, torus sizes are determined from the time lags of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer W1 and W2 band light curves relative to the optical band variability based on the interpolated cross-correlation function (ICCF) analysis and the Multiple and Inhomogeneous Component Analysis. We find that the torus size from the W1-band (W2-band) tightly correlates with the 5100~\AA\ continuum luminosity with an intrinsic scatter of 0.15-0.16 dex and the best-fit slope of $0.35 \pm 0.03$ ($0.33 \pm 0.03$), which is clearly shallower than the expected 0.5 slope from the sublimation radius-luminosity relation. We find a moderate negative trend that higher Eddington AGNs tend to have smaller torus sizes than expected from the best-fit, suggesting the Eddington ratio plays a role in flattening the torus size-luminosity relation. By comparing the torus size with the H$\beta$ reverberation time lag for a subsample of 67 AGNs, we find that the torus size is a factor of $\sim 10$ and $\sim 14$ larger than the BLR size, respectively for W1 and W2 bands. The torus size based on the W1 (W2) band correlates with the BLR size with the best-fit slope of $1.28 \pm 0.16$ ($1.10 \pm 0.15$), which is comparable but slightly steeper than a linear correlation.