MIR reverberation mapping analysis of 87 z<0.5 PG AGNs

We use these data for a mid-IR dust reverberation mapping (RM) study of 87 archetypal Palomar-Green quasars at z<~0.5. To cope with various contaminations of the photometry data and the sparse time sampling of the light curves, procedures to combine these data sets and retrieve the dust RM signals have been developed.

We find that ~70% of the sample (with a completeness correction up to 95%) has convincing mid-IR time lags in the WISE W1 (~3.4{mu}m) and W2 (~4.5{mu}m) bands, and they are proportional to the square root of the AGN luminosity. Combined with previous K-band (~2.2{mu}m) RM results in the literature, the inferred dust emission size ratios are R_K_:R_W1_:R_W2_=0.6:1:1.2. Under simple assumptions, we put preliminary constraints on the projected dust surface density at these bands and reveal the possibly different torus structures among hot-dust-deficient, warm-dust-deficient, and normal quasars from the reverberation signals.