MODELING THE NUCLEAR INFRARED SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION OF TYPE II ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI

We present results from model fitting to the spectral energy distribution (SED) of a homogeneous sample of Seyfert II galaxies drawn from the 12 mu m Galaxy Sample. Imaging and nuclear flux measurements are presented in an accompanying paper. Here we add Spitzer/IRS observations to further constrain the SEDs after careful subtraction of a starburst component. We use the library of CLUMPY torus models from Nenkova et al. and also test the two-phase models recently produced by Stalevski et al. We find that photometric and spectroscopic observations in the mid-IR ([lambda] [gap] 5 mu m) are crucial to properly constrain the best-fit torus models. Crucially, the derived torus parameters are quite robust when using CLUMPY models, independently of whether or not the sources require an additional blackbody component. Finally, we find no correlation between the torus properties and the presence of circumnuclear or more global star formation.