Related papers: X-ray reflected spectra from accretion disk models…
Spectroscopy of X-ray emission lines emitted in accretion discs around supermassive black holes is one of the most powerful probes of the accretion flow physics and geometry, while also providing in principle observational constraints on…
In active galactic nuclei (AGN), fluorescent Fe K$\alpha$ (iron) line emission is generally interpreted as originating from obscuring material around a supermassive black hole (SMBH) on the scale of a few parsecs (pc). However, recent…
Active galactic nuclei host an accretion disc with an X-ray producing corona around a supermassive black hole. In bright sources, such as the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 335, reflection of the coronal emission off the accretion disc has been…
The models currently used for the analysis of the reflection spectra of black holes usually assume a disk with constant ionization and electron density. However, there is some debate on the impact of these assumptions on the estimate of the…
We fit the broad-band RXTE PCA and HEXTE spectrum from 3--200 keV with reflection models which calculate the vertical ionization structure of an X-ray illuminated disc. We consider two geometries corresponding to a truncated disc/inner hot…
We analyze 15,000 spectra of 29 stellar-mass black hole candidates collected over the 16-year mission lifetime of RXTE using a simple phenomenological model. As these black holes vary widely in luminosity and progress through a sequence of…
Narrow absorption lines seen in the 2-10 keV spectra of active galaxies and Galactic black holes are normally attributed to iron in high velocity outflows or inflows. We consider the possibility that such features could arise naturally in…
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 emission. Here we present an analysis of the geometrical and kinematic…
We have investigated the nature and origin of the Fe K emission lines in Mrk~205 using observations with {\it Suzaku} and {\it XMM-Newton}, aiming to resolve the ambiguity between a broad emission line and multiple unresolved lines of…
We present results from Suzaku and Swift observations of the nearby radio galaxy 3C 33, and investigate the nature of absorption, reflection, and jet production in this source. We model the 0.5-100 keV nuclear continuum with a power law…
We report the detection with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer of a Compton reflection signature in the Seyfert galaxy MCG-5-23-16. RXTE also resolves the Fe K-alpha fluorescence line with FWHM ~48,000 km s^{-1}. This measurement provides the…
We study reflected X-ray emission that returns to the accretion disc in the strong gravitational fields around black holes using General Relativistic ray tracing and radiative transfer calculations. Reflected X-rays that are produced when…
We analyse a long archival XMM-Newton observation of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy Ton S180, using the latest reflection models to explore the high quality X-ray spectrum. We find that the iron line is relatively narrow and sharp, and…
Relativistic reflection is a common feature in the X-ray observations of accreting compact objects. We present reflux, a new X-ray reflection model for spectral analysis of super-Eddington sources. We develop two relativistic reflection…
We present a 152 ks XRISM/Resolve observation of the persistently accreting Z source GX 340+0. Simultaneous observations also occurred with NuSTAR and NICER for 22.47 ks and 2.7 ks, respectively. The source covered the normal branch to the…
We consider the spectra of Thomson-thick, geometrically-thin accretion discs around Galactic black hole candidates in the reflection model and compute their iron K edges and iron K$\alpha$ lines. We compare the smeared iron K edge profiles…
Returning radiation is thought to play a key role in disk illumination of black hole X-ray binaries in the high-soft state, yet it has not been fully incorporated into XSPEC reflection models. We present a new table model for reflection…
In the disk-corona model, the X-ray spectrum of a stellar-mass black hole in an X-ray binary is characterized by three components: a thermal component from a thin and cold accretion disk, a Comptonized component from a hot corona, and a…
We use a 380 ks XMM-Newton high-resolution RGS spectrum to look for narrow spectral features from the nuclear environment of 1H0707-495. We do not find any evidence of a line-of-sight ionized wind (warm absorber). We do, however, detect…
Blurred reflection features are commonly observed in the X-ray spectra of accreting black holes. In the presence of high-quality data and with the correct astrophysical model, X-ray reflection spectroscopy is a powerful tool to probe the…