Clear detection of dusty torus signatures in a Weak-Line Radio Galaxy:
  the case of PKS 0043-42
  We report the clearest detection to date of dusty torus signatures in a
Weak-Line Radio Galaxy (WLRG). The deep Spitzer InfraRed Spectrograph (IRS)
rest-frame mid-infrared (MIR) spectrum of the WLRG PKS 0043-42 (z=0.116) shows
a clear spectral turnover at wavelengths longer than ~20 micron suggestive of
warm dust, as well as a 9.7 micron silicate absorption feature. In addition,
the hard X-ray results, based on Chandra data, strongly support a picture in
which PKS 0043-42 has a torus and accretion disc more typical of Strong-Line
Radio Galaxies (SLRGs). The MIR and X-ray spectra are markedly different from
those of other WLRGs at similar redshifts, and here we show that the former can
be successfully fitted with clumpy torus models with parameters characteristic
of Type-2 AGN tori: close to edge-on (i=74 deg) and relatively broad (torus
angular width=60 deg), with an outer radius of 2 pc, hydrogen column density
~1.6x10^(23) cm^(-2), and AGN bolometric luminosity ~1.6x10^(44) erg s^(-1).
The presence of a compact torus in PKS 0043-42 provides evidence that this WLRG
is fuelled by cold, rather than hot, gas accretion. We suggest that WLRGs are a
diverse population, and PKS 0043-42 may represent a type of radio galaxy in
which the AGN activity has been recently re-triggered as a consequence of
intermittent gas supply, or in which the covering factor of the Narrow-Line
Region (NLR) clouds is relatively low.
