Related papers: On the apparent absence of broad iron lines in Sey…
We present an analysis of the X-ray spectra of a sample of 37 observations of 26 Seyfert galaxies observed by XMM-Newton in order to characterize their iron K emission. All objects show evidence for iron line emission in the 6-7 keV band. A…
The broad iron K$\alpha$ emission line, commonly seen in the X-ray spectrum of Seyfert nuclei, is thought to originate when the inner accretion disk is illuminated by an active disk-corona. We show that relative motion between the disk and…
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…
We report on the iron K-alpha line properties of a sample of Seyfert galaxies observed with the XMM-Newton EPIC pn instrument. Using a systematic and uniform analysis, we find that complexity at iron-K is extremely common in the XMM…
An intrinsically narrow line emitted by an accretion disk around a black hole appears broadened and skewed as a result of the Doppler effect and gravitational redshift. The fluorescent iron line in the X-ray band at 6.4-6.9keV is the…
Recent observations of Seyfert 1 AGN with Chandra, XMM-Newton and Suzaku revealed broad iron K_alpha emission lines, some relativistically blurred. For galactic black hole X-ray binaries XMM-Newton spectra during hard state also reveal the…
We present evidence for widespread relativistic effects in the central regions of active galactic nuclei. In a sample of 18 Seyfert 1 galaxies observed by \asca, 14 show an iron K$\alpha$ line which is is resolved, with mean width…
We present a spectral analysis of the NuSTAR and XMM-Newton observations of the Seyfert 1h galaxy/ULIRG IRAS 05189-2524 taken in 2013. We find evidence for relativistic disk reflection in the broadband X-ray spectrum: a highly asymmetric…
The relativistic broad iron lines seen in the X-ray spectra of several active galaxies and Galactic black hole systems are reviewed. Most such objects require emission from within the innermost stable orbit of a non-rotating black hole,…
In active galactic nuclei, X-ray illumination of the accretion disk around a supermassive black hole (SMBH) results in the production of the K$\alpha$ fluorescent line of iron, which provides insights into accretion physics and SMBH spins.…
(Abridged) We present the results of fitting ASCA spectra of six narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies with the ionised reflection models of Ross & Fabian (1993). We find that five of the galaxies (TONS 180, PKS 0558-504, Ark 564, Mrk 335…
The observations and interpretation of broad iron lines in the X-ray spectra of Seyfert 1 galaxies are reviewed. The line profiles observed from MCG--6-30-15 and NGC 3516 show extended red wings to the line explained by large gravitational…
We report results obtained from six XMM-Newton observations of the Seyfert galaxy 1H 0419-577. Here we show that the X-ray spectrum and variability are well described by a two-component model comprising a power law with constant spectral…
We present simultaneous ASCA and RXTE data on the bright Seyfert 1 galaxy IC4329a. The iron line is significantly broadened, but not to the extent expected from an accretion disk which extends down to the last stable orbit around a black…
Any cold, optically-thick matter in the vicinity of an accreting black hole, such as the accretion disk, can intercept and reprocess some fraction of the hard X-ray continuum emission, thereby imprinting atomic features into the observed…
XMM-Newton observations of type I AGN are presented. The properties of the iron K emission line are reviewed, the majority of AGN observed by XMM-Newton show narrow, unresolved (by XMM) iron lines at 6.4 keV from cold matter that must…
Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies are generally accreting at high fractions of the Eddington limit. They can show complex X-ray spectra, with a strong `soft excess' below 2 keV and a sharp drop at ~7 keV. There is strong evidence linking the…
We present the first unambiguous evidence of a broad (Gaussian width ~330 eV) component of the iron K-alpha fluorescent emission line in the X-ray obscured Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC5506. This is the main results of a spectroscopic…
In this paper we present a fully relativistic approach to modelling both the continuum emission and the reflected fluorescent iron line from a primary X-ray source near a Kerr black hole. The X-ray source is located above an accretion disc…
A model for the inner regions of accretion flows is presented where, due to disc instabilities, cold and dense material is clumped into deep sheets or rings. Surrounding these density enhancements is hot, tenuous gas where coronal…