Project

The nature and origin of the putative dusty torus in active galactic nuclei

Code
G061825N
Duration
01 January 2025 → 31 December 2028
Funding
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Promotor-spokesperson
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Cosmology and extragalactic astronomy
    • High energy astrophysics, astroparticle physics and cosmic rays
Keywords
Radiative transfer X-ray astronomy Active galactic nuclei
 
Project description

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are a crucial phase in the evolution of all massive galaxies during which their nuclear regions become extremely luminous. According to the widely accepted unification model, AGN consist of an accreting supermassive black hole surrounded by a toroidal structure of gas and dust. The unification model is only a phenomenological and not a physical model: it does not explain the nature and origin of this putative dusty torus. There are currently two competing scenarios: a radiation-feedback-driven and a magnetic-field-driven scenario. Two new X-ray missions (IXPE and XRISM) finally have the power to discriminate between them. We want to generate synthetic spectroscopic and polarimetric X-ray observations for different hydrodynamical simulations of AGN, and compare these to the new IXPE and XRISM observational data. Our general goals are to investigate which models can reproduce the IXPE and XRISM observations and to discriminate between the two possible scenarios for the formation of dusty tori in AGN.