We present new photometry of 16 local Seyferts including 6 Compton-thick sources in N -band filters around 12- \mu m , obtained with the VISIR instrument on the 8-m Very Large Telescope .
The near-diffraction-limited imaging provides the least-contaminated core fluxes for these sources to date .
Augmenting these with our previous observations and with published intrinsic X-ray fluxes , we form a total sample of 42 sources for which we find a strong mid-infrared : X-ray ( 12.3 \mu m:2-10 keV ) luminosity correlation .
Performing a physically-motivated sub-selection of sources in which the Seyfert torus is likely to be best-resolved results in the correlation L _ { MIR } \propto L _ { X } ^ { 1.11 \pm 0.07 } , with a reduction of the scatter in luminosities as compared to the full sample .
Consideration of systematics suggests a range of 1.02–1.21 for the correlation slope .
The mean 2-keV:12.3- \mu m spectral index ( \alpha _ { IX } ) is found to be –1.10 \pm 0.01 , largely independent of luminosity .
Observed 12- \mu m bolometric corrections range over \approx 10–30 if a known luminosity trend of intrinsic X-ray bolometric corrections is assumed .
Comparison with ISO data spanning a larger luminosity range suggests that our correlation can be extended into the quasar regime .
The fact that unobscured , obscured and Compton-thick sources all closely follow the same luminosity correlation has important implications for the structures of Seyfert cores .
The typical resolution-limit of our imaging corresponds to \sim 70 pc at a median z = 0.01 , and we use the tightness of the correlation to place constraints on the dominance of any residual emission sources within these physical scales ; we infer an upper-limit of \approx 40 % of the unresolved flux for any contaminating star-formation , on average .
We suggest that uncontaminated mid-IR continuum imaging of AGN is an accurate proxy for their intrinsic power .