Thick tori around active galactic nuclei: The case for extended tori and consequences for their X-ray and infrared emission

Two families of models of dusty tori in active galactic nuclei (AGNs; moderately thick and extended versus very thick and compact) are tested against available observations. The confrontation suggests that the former class better explains the infrared (IR) broadband spectra of both broad-and narrow-line AGNs, the anisotropy of the emission deduced by comparing IR properties of Seyfert 1 and 2 nuclei, and the results of IR spectroscopy and those of high spatial resolution observations. There is, however, clear evidence for a broad distribution of optical depths. We also examine the relationship between IR and X-ray emission. The data support a view in which the matter responsible for the X-ray absorption is mostly dust free, lying inside the dust sublimation radius. The consequences of these results for the hard X-ray background as well as IR counts and background are discussed.