Thermal infrared 3-5 micron colors of obscured and unobscured active galactic nuclei

Thermal infrared photometry in the L and M' bands and L-M' colors of type 1 and type 2 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are presented. After combining our observations with photometric data at similar wavelengths taken from the literature, we find that the excess of L-M' colors of type 2 AGNs (37 sources, 50 data points) relative to type 1 AGNs (27 sources, 36 data points), due to dust extinction, is statistically detectable but very small. We next investigate the L-M' colors of type 2 AGNs by separating less dust obscured type 2 AGNs and highly dust obscured type 2 AGNs. In both cases, the L-M' colors are similar to the intrinsic L-M' color of unobscured AGNs, and the L-M' color excess of the latter highly dust obscured type 2 AGNs, due to dust extinction, is much smaller than that expected from the Galactic dust extinction curve. Contamination from starbursts and the time lag of flux variation are unlikely to explain this small L-M' color excess, which is best explained if the dust extinction curve in the close vicinity of AGNs is fairly flat at 3-5 mum, as a result of a size increase of the absorbing dust grains through coagulation.