活动星系核中的尘埃.pdfVIP

Abstract Dust is the cornerstone of the unification theory of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). This theory proposes that all AGNs are essentially ―born equal‖: all types of AGNs are surrounded by an optically thick dust torus and are basically the same object but viewed from different lines of sight. The large diversity in the observational properties of AGNs is simply caused by the viewing-angle-dependent obscuration of the nucleus: those viewed face-on are unobscured (allowing for a direct view of their nuclei) and recognized as ―type 1‖ AGNs, while those viewed edge-on are ―type 2‖ AGNs with most of their central engine and broad line regions being hidden by the obscuring dust. It is this crucial role played by dust in the unified model of AGNs that makes understanding dust properties very important in understanding AGNs. However, little is known about the dust in the circumnuclear torus of AGNs. There is evidence suggesting that the size and composition of the dust in AGNs may differ substantially from that of the Galactic interstellar dust, as reflected by the flat /―gray‖ extinction curves, the 2175 Å extinction bump is not (or at least rarely) seen in AGNs, and the anomalous silicate emission or absorption features observed respectively in type 1 and type 2 AGNs. In this thesis we took a comparative study of the extinction and IR emission as well as the UV/IR spectroscopic properties and the inferred compositon, size and morphology of the dust in AGNs and the dust in the interstellar medium of the Milky Way and other galaxies. Then we summarized our current under