Reverberation Response Models of the Infrared Dust Emission from a Clumpy Torus

<p>The obscuring circum-nuclear dusty torus is a major component of AGN and yet, thus far, its shape, composition, and structure have not been well constrained by observations. However, using indirect methods such as reverberation mapping, the size and structure of the torus can be estimated through the time variability of the dusty torus emission in response to changes in the AGN luminosity. I will discuss the computer simulation that I have developed in order to extract structural information from the infrared light curves of 12 Type 1 AGN, obtained during a 2.5 year monitoring campaign using the Spitzer Space Telescope and several ground-based optical telescopes. Given an input optical light curve, the code computes the temporal response of the infrared emission spectrum of a 3D ensemble of dust clouds as a function of time. I will present simulations exploring the effects of various geometrical and structural properties, dust cloud orientation, and anisotropy of the illuminating radiation field on the dusty torus response at selected infrared wavelengths. I will also compare model infrared light curves to those observed for the recently discovered changing-look AGN, NGC 6418.