Hypercubes of AGN Tori (HYPERCAT) -- II. Resolving the Torus with
  Extremely Large Telescopes
  Recent infrared interferometric observations revealed sub-parsec scale dust
distributions around active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Using images of CLUMPY
torus models and NGC 1068 as an example, we demonstrate that the near- and
mid-infrared nuclear emission of some nearby AGNs will be resolvable in direct
imaging with the next generation of 30~m telescopes, potentially breaking
degeneracies from previous studies that used integrated spectral energy
distributions of unresolved AGN tori. To that effect we model
wavelength-dependent point spread functions from the pupil images of various
telescopes: James Webb Space Telescope, Keck, Giant Magellan Telescope, Thirty
Meter Telescope, and Extremely Large Telescope. We take into account detector
pixel scales and noise, and apply deconvolution techniques for image recovery.
We also model 2D maps of the 10-micron silicate feature strength, $S_{10}$, of
NGC 1068 and compare with observations. When the torus is resolved, we find
$S_{10}$ variations across the image. However, to reproduce the $S_{10}$
measurements of an unresolved torus a dusty screen of $A_V > 9$ mag is
required. We also fit the first resolved image of the K-band emission in NGC
1068 recently published by the GRAVITY collaboration, deriving likely model
parameters of the underlying dust distribution. We find that both 1) an
elongated structure suggestive of a highly inclined emission ring, and 2) a
geometrically thin but optically thick flared disk where the emission arises
from a narrow strip of hot cloud surface layers on the far inner side of the
torus funnel, can explain the observations.
