Next Talk: February 15

Speaker:    Anton Dorodnitsyn   NASA GSFC / University of Maryland
Title:    AGN Obscuration Through Dusty Infrared Dominated Flows

Abstract:   
We explore a detailed model in which the active galactic nucleus (AGN) obscuration results from the extinction of AGN radiation in a global flow driven by the pressure of infrared radiation on dust grains. We assume that external illumination by UV and soft X-rays of the dusty gas located at approximately 1pc away from the supermassive black hole is followed by a conversion of such radiation into IR. Using 2.5D, time-dependent radiation hydrodynamics simulations in a flux-limited diffusion approximation we find that the external illumination can support a geometrically thick obscuration via outflows driven by infrared radiation pressure in AGN with luminosities greater than 0.05 Ledd and Compton optical depth, > 1.

Full Schedule: Spring 2012

Date Speaker Title
January 18 Robert Content
  Durham University		 Integral Field Systems for Integral Field Spectroscopy
January 25 Jason Li
  Princeton		 Adding Sparks to Pulsar Magnetospheres
February 1 James Aird
  UC San Diego 		The Incidence of AGN is Independent of Host Stellar Mass
February 8 James Lloyd
  Cornell University		 ''Retired'' Planet Hosts: Not So Massive, Maybe Just Portly After Lunch
February 15 Anton Dorodnitsyn
  NASA GSFC / University of Maryland		 AGN Obscuration Through Dusty Infrared Dominated Flows
February 22 Jeremiah Murphy
  Princeton		 TBA
February 29 Mansi Kasliwal
  Carnegie Observatories		 TBA
March 7 Michael Berry
  Rutgers University		 TBA
March 14 Mikhail Belyaev
  Princeton		 TBA
March 21 Timothy Brandt
  Princeton		 TBA
March 28 Alexander Tchekhovskoy
  Princeton		 TBA
April 4 Blake Sherwin
  Princeton		 TBA
April 11 Jose Prieto
  Princeton		 TBA
April 18 Dimitrios Giannios
  Princeton		 TBA
April 25 Yan-Fei Jiang
  Princeton		 TBA
May 2 Rodrigo Fernández
  IAS		 TBA
May 9 Ena Choi
  Princeton		 TBA
May 16 Geoffroy Lesur
  IPAG		 TBA
May 23 Elisa Chisari
  Princeton		 TBA
May 30 Lucianne Walkowicz
  Princeton		 TBA