Orientation Effects on the Inner Region of Dusty Torus of Active
  Galactic Nuclei
  A sublimation process governs the innermost region of the dusty torus of
active galactic nuclei. However, the observed inner radius of the torus is
systematically smaller than the expected radius by a factor of ~ 1/3. We show
that the anisotropy of the emission from accretion disks resolves this conflict
naturally and quantitatively. An accretion disk emits lesser radiation in the
direction closer to its equatorial plane (i.e., to the torus). We find that the
anisotropy makes the torus inner region closer to the central black hole and
concave. Moreover, the innermost edge of the torus may connect with the
outermost edge of the disk continuously. Considering the anisotropic emission
of each clump in the torus, we calculate the near-infrared flux variation in
response to a UV flash. For an observer at the polar angle theta_obs = 25 deg,
the centroid of the time delay is found to be 37% of the delay expected in the
case of isotropic illumination, which explains the observed systematic
deviation.
