144 research outputs found
The structure and radiation spectra of illuminated accretion discs in AGN. I. Moderate illumination
We present detailed computations of the vertical structure of an accretion
disc illuminated by hard X-ray radiation with the code {\sc titan-noar}
suitable for Compton thick media. The energy generated via accretion is
dissipated partially in the cold disc as well as in the X-ray source. We study
the differences between the case where the X-ray source is in the form of a
lamp post above the accretion disc and the case of a heavy corona. We consider
radiative heating via Comptonization together with heating via photo-absorption
on numerous heavy elements as carbon, oxygen, silicon, iron. The transfer in
lines is precisely calculated. A better description of the heating/cooling
through the inclusion of line transfer, a correct description of the
temperature in the deeper layers, a correct description of the entire disc
vertical structure, as well as the study of the possible coronal pressure
effect, constitute an improvement in comparison to previous works. We show that
exact calculations of hydrostatic equilibrium and determination of the disc
thickness has a crucial impact on the optical depth of the hot illuminated
zone. We assume a moderate illumination where the viscous flux equals the X-ray
radiation flux. A highly ionized skin is created in the lamp post model, with
the outgoing spectrum containing many emission lines and ionization edges in
emission or absorption in the soft X-ray domain, as well as an iron line at
keV consisting of a blend of low ionization line from the deepest
layers and hydrogen and helium like resonance line from the upper layers, and
almost no absorption edge, contrary to the case of a slab of constant density.A
full heavy corona completely suppresses the highly ionized zone on the top of
the accretion disc and in such case the spectrum is featureless.Comment: 16 pages, 20 figures, corrected two sentences, accepted by MNRA
Disk/corona model: The transition to ADAF
We propose a model of the accretion flow onto a black hole consisting of the
accretion disk with an accreting two-temperature corona. The model is based on
assumptions about the radiative and conductive energy exchange between the two
phases and the pressure equilibrium. The complete model is determined by the
mass, the accretion rate, and the viscosity parameter. We present the radial
dependencies of parameters of such a two-phase flow, with advection in the
corona and the disk/corona mass exchange due to evaporation/condensation
included, and we determine the transition radius from a two-phase disk/corona
accretion to a single-phase optically thin flow (ADAF) in the innermost part of
the disk as a function of accretion rate. We identify the NLS1 galaxies with
objects accreting at a rate close to the Eddington accretion rate. The strong
variability of these objects may be related to the limit cycle behaviour
expected in this luminosity range, as the disk, unstable due to the dominance
by the radiation pressure, oscillates between the two stable branches: the
advection-dominated optically thick branch and the evaporation branch.Comment: Contributed talk presented at the Joint MPE,AIP,ESO workshop on
NLS1s, Bad Honnef, Dec. 1999, to appear in New Astronomy Reviews; also
available at http://wave.xray.mpe.mpg.de/conferences/nls1-worksho
Intermediate-line Emission in AGNs: The Effect of Prescription of the Gas Density
The requirement of intermediate line component in the recently observed
spectra of several AGNs points to possibility of the existence of a physically
separate region between broad line region (BLR) and narrow line region (NLR).
In this paper we explore the emission from intermediate line region (ILR) by
using the photoionization simulations of the gas clouds distributed radially
from the AGN center. The gas clouds span distances typical for BLR, ILR and
NLR, and the appearance of dust at the sublimation radius is fully taken into
account in our model. Single cloud structure is calculated under the assumption
of the constant pressure. We show that the slope of the power law cloud density
radial profile does not affect the existence of ILR in major types of AGN. We
found that the low ionization iron line, Fe~II, appears to be highly sensitive
for the presence of dust and therefore becomes potential tracer of dust content
in line emitting regions. We show that the use of disk-like cloud density
profile computed at the upper part of the accretion disc atmosphere reproduces
the observed properties of the line emissivities. In particular, the distance
of H line inferred from our model agrees with that obtained from the
reverberation mapping studies in Sy1 galaxy NGC 5548.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figure
The intermediate line region in active galactic nuclei
We show that the recently observed suppression of the gap between the broad
line region (BLR) and the narrow line region (NLR) in some AGN can be fully
explained by an increase of the gas density in the emitting region. Our model
predicts the formation of the intermediate line region (ILR) that is observed
in some Seyfert galaxies by the detection of emission lines with intermediate
velocity full width half maximum (FWHM) 700 - 1200 km s. These
lines are believed to be originating from an ILR located somewhere between the
BLR and NLR. As it was previously proved, the apparent gap is assumed to be
caused by the presence of dust beyond the sublimation radius. Our computations
with the use of {\sc cloudy} photoionization code, show that the differences in
the shape of spectral energy distribution (SED) from the central region of AGN,
do not diminish the apparent gap in the line emission in those objects. A
strong discontinuity in the line emission vs radius exists for all lines at the
dust sublimation radius. However, increasing the gas density to
10 cm at the sublimation radius provides the continuous line
emission vs radius and fully explains the recently observed lack of apparent
gap in some AGN. We show that such a high density is consistent with the
density of upper layers of an accretion disk atmosphere. Therefore, the upper
layers of the disk atmosphere can give rise to the formation of observed
emission line clouds.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Conditions for the Thermal Instability in the Galactic Centre Mini-spiral region
We explore the conditions for the thermal instability to operate in the
mini-spiral region of the Galactic centre (Sgr A*), where both the hot and cold
media are known to coexist. The photoionisation Cloudy calculations are
performed for different physical states of plasma. We neglect the dynamics of
the material and concentrate on the study of the parameter ranges where the
thermal instability may operate, taking into account the past history of Sgr A*
bolometric luminosity. We show that the thermal instability does not operate at
the present very low level of the Sgr A* activity. However, Sgr A* was much
more luminous in the past. For the highest luminosity states the two-phase
medium can be created up to 1.4 pc from the centre. The presence of dust grains
tends to suppress the instability, but the dust is destroyed in the presence of
strong radiation field and hot plasma. The clumpiness is thus induced in the
high activity period, and the cooling/heating timescales are long enough to
preserve later the past multi-phase structure. The instability enhances the
clumpiness of the mini-spiral medium and creates a possibility of episodes of
enhanced accretion of cold clumps towards Sgr A*. The mechanism determines the
range of masses and sizes of clouds; under the conditions of Sgr A*, the likely
values come out - for the cloud typical mass.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 10 pages, 7 figure
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