Dusty Discs in AGN

Abstract A modified version of the code of Efstathiou and Rowan-Robinson (1990), that solves accurately the axially symmetric radiative transfer problem in dust clouds, is used to model the infrared emission from dust in Active Galactic Nuclei. The method takes into account a distribution of grain species and sizes and includes treatment of multiple scattering from grains. Arguments are presented supporting the idea that tapered discs (discs whose height increases with distance from the central source but tapers off to a constant height in their outer part) with steep density gradients are the most successful in satisfying the observational constraints.