191 research outputs found
Line Emission from an Accretion Disk around a Black hole: Effects of Disk Structure
The observed iron K-alpha fluorescence lines in Seyfert-1 galaxies provide
strong evidence for an accretion disk near a supermassive black hole as a
source of the line emission. These lines serve as powerful probes for examining
the structure of inner regions of accretion disks. Previous studies of line
emission have considered geometrically thin disks only, where the gas moves
along geodesics in the equatorial plane of a black hole. Here we extend this
work to consider effects on line profiles from finite disk thickness, radial
accretion flow and turbulence. We adopt the Novikov and Thorne (1973) solution,
and find that within this framework, turbulent broadening is the dominant new
effect. The most prominent change in the skewed, double-horned line profiles is
a substantial reduction in the maximum flux at both red and blue peaks. The
effect is most pronounced when the inclination angle is large, and when the
accretion rate is high. Thus, the effects discussed here may be important for
future detailed modeling of high quality observational data.Comment: 21 pages including 8 figures; LaTeX; ApJ format; accepted by ApJ;
short results of this paper appeared before as a conference proceedings
(astro-ph/9711214
The effects of relativistic bulk motion of X-ray flares in the corona on the iron Kalpha line in Seyfert 1 galaxies
We study the effects of the bulk motion of X-ray flares on the shape and
equivalent width of the iron Kalpha line from an untruncated cold disk around a
Kerr black hole using fully relativistic calculations. The flares are located
above a cold accretion disk -- either on or off the rotation axis. For on- or
off-axis flares, the upward/outward bulk motion causes a reduction of the iron
Kalpha line width. To a distant observer with a low inclination angle (\theta_o
\simlt 30deg.), larger upward/outward bulk velocities decrease the extension of
the red wing, with little change in the location of the blue `edge'. In
contrast, an observer at a large inclination angle (e.g. \theta_o=60deg.) sees
both the red wing and the blue `edge' change with the bulk velocity. The
equivalent width of the iron Kalpha line decreases rapidly with increasing bulk
velocity of flares. However, the `narrower' line profiles observed in some
objects (e.g. IC4329A and NGC4593) are difficult to produce using the
out-flowing magnetic flare model with an appropriate equivalent width unless
the X-ray emission is concentrated in an outer region with a radius of several
tens of r_g=GM/c^2 or more. An important result is that the iron Kalpha line
intensity is found to be constant even though the continuum flux varies
significantly, which is true for out-flowing magnetic flares with different
bulk velocities but similar intrinsic luminosities when located close to the
central black hole. We find that fluctuations in the bulk velocities of
out-flowing low-height flares located at the inner region (r\simlt 15r_g) can
account for a constant iron Kalpha line and significant continuum variation as
observered in MCG-6-30-15 and NGC5548. (Abridged)Comment: 30 pages (including 8 figures); minor changes, to appear in ApJ, Nov.
10, 200
Nuclear obscuration in the high-ionization Seyfert 2 galaxy Tol 0109-383
We report the BeppoSAX detection of a hard X-ray excess in the X-ray spectrum
of the classical high-ionization Seyfert 2 galaxy Tol0109-383. The X-ray
emission of this source observed below 7 keV is dominated by reflection from
both cold and ionized gas, as seen in the ASCA data. The excess hard X-ray
emission is presumably due to the central source absorbed by an optically thick
obscuring torus with N(H)~2e24 cm-2. The strong cold X-ray reflection, if it is
produced at the inner surface of the torus, is consistent with the picture
where much of the inner nucleus of Tol0109-383 is exposed to direct view, as
indicated by optical and infrared properties. However, the X-ray absorption
must occur at small radii in order to hide the central X-ray source but leave
the optical high-ionization emission line region unobscured. This may also be
the case for objects like the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk231.Comment: 7 pages, MNRAS in pres
Thermal Instability and Photoionized X-ray Reflection in Accretion Disks
We study the X-ray illumination of an accretion disk. We relax the
simplifying assumption of constant gas density used in most previous studies;
instead we determine the density from hydrostatic balance. It is found that the
thermal ionization instability prevents the illuminated gas from attaining
temperatures at which the gas is unstable. In particular, the uppermost layers
of the X-ray illuminated gas are found to be almost completely ionized and at
the local Compton temperature ( K); at larger depths, the gas
temperature drops abruptly to form a thin layer with K, while at
yet larger depths it decreases sharply to the disk effective temperature. We
find that most of the Fe K line emission and absorption edge are
produced in the coolest, deepest layers, while the Fe atoms in the hottest,
uppermost layers are generally almost fully ionized, hence making a negligible
contribution to reprocessing features in keV energy range. We
provide a summary of how X-ray reprocessing features depend on parameters of
the problem. The results of our self-consistent calculations are both
quantitatively and qualitatively different from those obtained using the
constant density assumption. Therefore, we conclude that X-ray reflection
calculations should always utilize hydrostatic balance in order to provide a
reliable theoretical interpretation of observed X-ray spectra of AGN and GBHCs.Comment: Submitted to ApJ; 16 pages plus 13 figure
Evidence for Doppler-Shifted Iron Emission Lines in Black Hole Candidate 4U 1630-47
We report the first detection of a pair of correlated emission lines in the
X-ray spectrum of black hole candidate 4U 1630-47 during its 1996 outburst,
based on RXTE observations of the source. At the peak plateau of the outburst,
the emission lines are detected, centered mostly at 5.7 keV and 7.7
keV, respectively, while the line energies exhibit random variability 5%.
Interestingly, the lines move in a concerted manner to keep their separation
roughly constant. The lines also vary greatly in strength, but with the
lower-energy line always much stronger than the higher-energy one. The measured
equivalent width ranges from 50 eV to 270 eV for the former, and
from insignificant detection to 140 eV for the latter; the two are
reasonably correlated.
The correlation between the lines implies a causal connection --- perhaps
they share a common origin. Both lines may arise from a single
line of highly ionized iron that is Doppler-shifted either in a Keplerian
accretion disk or in a bi-polar outflow or even both. In both scenarios, a
change in the line energy might simply reflect a change in the ionization state
of line-emitting matter. We discuss the implication of the results and also
raise some questions about such interpretations.Comment: To appear in Ap
X-ray Signatures of an Ionized Reprocessor in the Seyfert galaxy Ton S 180
We discuss the hard X-ray properties of the Seyfert galaxy Ton S 180, based
upon the analysis of ASCA data. We find the X-ray flux varied by a factor ~2 on
a time scale of a few thousand seconds. The source showed significantly higher
amplitude of variability in the 0.5-2 keV band than in the 2-10 keV band. The
continuum is adequately parameterized as a Gamma ~ 2.5 power-law across the
0.6--10 keV band . We confirm the recent discovery of an emission line of high
equivalent width, due to Fe K-shell emission from highly-ionized material.
These ASCA data show the Fe line profile to be broad and asymmetric and
tentatively suggest it is stronger during the X-ray flares, consistent with an
origin from the inner parts of an accretion disk. The X-ray spectrum is complex
below 2 keV, possibly due to emission from a blend of soft X-ray lines, which
would support the existence of an ionized reprocessor, most likely due to a
relatively high accretion rate in this source.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures. LaTeX with encapsulated postscript. To appear in
the Astrophysical Journa
Unveiling the broad band X-ray continuum and iron line complex in Mkr 841
Mkr 841 is a bright Seyfert 1 galaxy known to harbor a strong soft excess and
a variable K iron line. It has been observed during 3 different periods
by XMM for a total cumulated exposure time of 108 ks. We present in this
paper a broad band spectral analysis of the complete EPIC-pn data sets. We were
able to test two different models for the soft excess, a relativistically
blurred photoionized reflection (\r model) and a relativistically smeared
ionized absorption (\a model). The continuum is modeled by a simple cut-off
power law and we also add a neutral reflection. These observations reveal the
extreme and puzzling spectral and temporal behaviors of the soft excess and
iron line. The 0.5-3 keV soft X-ray flux decreases by a factor 3 between 2001
and 2005 and the line shape appears to be a mixture of broad and narrow
components. We succeed in describing this complex broad-band 0.5-10 keV
spectral variability using either \r or \a to fit the soft excess. Both models
give statistically equivalent results even including simultaneous BeppoSAX data
up to 200 keV. Both models are consistent with the presence of remote
reflection characterized by a constant narrow component in the data. However
they differ in the presence of a broad line component present in \r but not
needed in \a. This study also reveals the sporadic presence of relativistically
redshifted narrow iron lines.Comment: Accepted in A&A. 17 pages and 21 figure
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