[OIII] λ5007, near IR and X-ray properties of Seyfert 2s: A new means of estimating the torus induced extinction?

Abstract

It is known that hard X-rays emission is a good indicator of the intrinsic luminosity of Seyfert 2s in those cases where they are transmitted through the torus, rather than seen purely by reflection as in NGC 1068. It has recently been demonstrated that the [OIII] λ5007 line emission and hard X-rays emission in Seyfert 2s follow the same correlation as found for Seyfert 1s, and hence that [OIII] flux can also be used to infer the intrinsic power. Recent models predict that the inner regions of the torus have hot dust with a black body peak around 3.5 μm (L-band). We use comparisons of the hard X-ray, [OIII] and L-band properties of PG quasars, Seyfert 1 and 2 galaxies, to infer the amount of reddening in the latter. Our values for the extinction are compared with those inferred from the hard X-ray column densities.