The Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS)

II. Torus and polar dust emission in nearby Seyfert galaxies

¹ Centro de Astrobiología (CAB, CSIC-INTA), ESAC Campus, 28692 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
e-mail: aalonso@cab.inta-csic.es
² Observatorio de Madrid, OAN-IGN, Alfonso XII, 3, 28014 Madrid, Spain
³ Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Southampton, Hampshire, SO17 1BJ Southampton, UK
⁴ Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK
⁵ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Calle Vía Láctea, s/n, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁶ Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁷ Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica (IRyA-UNAM), 3-72 (Xangari), 8701 Morelia, Mexico
⁸ Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
⁹ Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences, Bôcní II 1401, 14131 Prague, Czechia
¹⁰ Leiden Observatory, PO Box 9513 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
¹¹ LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, Collège de France, PSL University, CNRS, Sorbonne University, Paris, France
¹² Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Postfach 1312, 85741 Garching, Germany
¹³ Institute of Astrophysics, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, 71110 Heraklion, Greece
¹⁴ Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK 99508-4664, USA
¹⁵ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo Enrico Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
¹⁶ Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
¹⁷ Astronomical Institute, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
¹⁸ National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS), 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
¹⁹ Department of Astronomy, School of Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
²⁰ National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
²¹ Department of Astronomical Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
²² Centro de Astrobiología (CAB, CSIC-INTA), Carretera de Ajalvir, 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain
²³ Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
²⁴ The University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA
²⁵ Núcleo de Astronomía de la Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Diego Portales, Av. Ejército Libertador 441, Santiago, Chile
²⁶ Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, PR China
²⁷ Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
²⁸ LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Univ. Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 5 Place Jules Janssen, 92190 Meudon, France
²⁹ Astronomical Observatory, Volgina 7, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia
³⁰ Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Universiteit Ghent, Krijgslaan 281-S9, Ghent 9000, Belgium
³¹ Kagoshima University, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan
³² Ehime University, Research Center for Space and Cosmic Evolution, Matsuyama 790-8577, Japan
³³ Hokkaido University, Faculty of Science, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan

Received: 30 April 2021
Accepted: 30 June 2021

Abstract

We compare high angular resolution mid-infrared (mid-IR) and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) far-infrared (far-IR) images of twelve nearby (median 21 Mpc) Seyfert galaxies selected from the Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS). The mid-IR unresolved emission contributes more than 60% of the nuclear (diameters of 1.5″ ∼ 150 pc) emission in most galaxies. By contrast, the ALMA 870 μm continuum emission is mostlyresolved with a median diameter of 42 pc and typically along the equatorial direction of the torus (Paper I). The Eddington ratios and nuclear hydrogen column densities (N_H) of half the sample are favorable to launching polar and/or equatorial dusty winds, according to numerical simulations. Six of these show mid-IR extended emission approximately in the polar direction as traced by the narrow line region and perpendicular to the ALMA emission. In a few galaxies, the nuclear N_H might be too high to uplift large quantities of dusty material along the polar direction. Five galaxies have low N_H and/or Eddington ratios and thus polar dusty winds are not likely. We generated new radiative transfer CAT3D-WIND disk+wind models and model images at 8, 12, and 700 μm. We tailored these models to the properties of the GATOS Seyferts in this work. At low wind-to-disk cloud ratios, the far-IR model images have disk- and ring-like morphologies. The characteristic “X”-shape associated with dusty winds is seen better in the far-IR at intermediate-high inclinations for the extended-wind configurations. In most of the explored models, the mid-IR emission mainly comes from the inner part of the disk and cone. Extended biconical and one-sided polar mid-IR emission is seen in extended-wind configurations and high wind-to-disk cloud ratios. When convolved to the typical angular resolution of our observations, the CAT3D-WIND model images reproduce qualitative aspects of the observed mid- and far-IR morphologies. However, low to intermediate values of the wind-to-disk ratio are required to account for the observed large fractions of unresolved mid-IR emission in our sample. This work and Paper I provide observational support for the torus+wind scenario. The wind component is more relevant at high Eddington ratios and/or active galactic nucleus luminosities, and polar dust emission is predicted at nuclear column densities of up to ∼10²⁴ cm⁻². The torus or disk component, on the other hand, prevails at low luminosities and/or Eddington ratios.