Related papers: Relativistic Disc lines
Relativistic outflows are a common phenomenon in accreting black holes. Despite the enormous differences in scale, stellar-mass black holes in binaries and supermassive black holes in Galactic Nuclei produce jets with analogous properties.…
Relativistic jets are one of the most powerful manifestations of the release of energy produced around supermassive black holes at the centre of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Their emission is observed across the entire electromagnetic…
Relativistic reflection features in the X-ray spectra of accreting black holes are considered to be generated by the illumination of the accretion disk by the hot corona. In this work, we present a numerical method for the emission line…
We extend the investigation of general relativistic effects on the observed X-ray continuum of Kerr black holes in the context of the light bending model (Miniutti & Fabian, 2004). Assuming a ring-like illuminating source, co-rotating with…
The nature and geometry of the hard state in black hole binaries is controversial. The broadband continuum spectrum and fast variability properties can be explained in a model where the inner disc evaporates into a geometrically thick, hot…
This is a collection of notes to calculate electromagnetic spectra of geometrically thin and optically thick accretion disks around black holes. The presentation is intentionally pedagogical and most calculations are reported step by step.…
We present the first X-ray reverberation mass measurement of a stellar-mass black hole. Accreting stellar-mass and supermassive black holes display characteristic spectral features resulting from reprocessing of hard X-rays by the accretion…
Forbidden coronal lines has traditionally called the attention due to the high-energy photons required for their production (IP $>$100~eV, where IP is the ionisation potential of the transitions that originate the line). As such, they are…
X-ray reflection off the accretion disc surrounding a black hole, together with the associated broad iron K$\alpha$ line, has been widely used to constrain the innermost accretion-flow geometry and black hole spin. Some recent measurements…
X-ray observations of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) reveal relativistic reflections from the innermost regions of accretion disks, which contain general-relativistic footprints caused by spinning supermassive black holes (SMBH). We…
X-ray reflection from an accretion disc produces characteristic emission lines allowing us to probe the innermost regions in AGN. We investigate these emission lines under a framework of Riemannian geometrical optics where the corona has a…
We review the recent multifrequency studies of galactic black hole binaries, aiming at revealing the underlying emission processes and physical properties in these systems. The optical and infrared observations are important for determining…
The spin of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) is directly related to the radiative efficiency of accretion on to the hole, and therefore impacts the amount of fuel required for the black hole to reach a certain mass. Thus, a knowledge of the…
We study the observational properties of a class of exact solutions of Einstein's field equations describing stationary, axially symmetric, rigidly rotating dust (i.e. non interacting particles). We ask the question whether such solutions…
Observations of fluorescent iron lines from accreting black holes provide one of the best tests of strong field gravity available to date, and the only current observational tool to probe black hole spacetime. However, the two most widely…
Two related topics are discussed. 1. Accretion onto black holes at low and high (though not very high) rates is believed to proceed adiabatically ({\em ie} non-radiatively). It is argued that the liberated energy is carried off by an…
Recently Zhang (2005) has proposed a model to account for the well established effect that the fraction of type-II AGNs is anti-correlated with the observed X-ray luminosity; the model consists of an X-ray emitting accretion disk coaligned…
Gas within the influence sphere of accreting massive black holes is responsible for the emission of the broad lines observed in optical-UV spectra of unobscured active galactic nuclei. Since the region contributing the most to the broad…
X-ray reverberation, where light-travel time delays map out the compact geometry around the inner accretion flow in supermassive black holes, has been discovered in several of the brightest, most variable and well-known Seyfert galaxies. In…
The nature of the super-massive black hole candidates in galactic nuclei can be tested by analyzing the profile of the K$\alpha$ iron line observed in their X-ray spectrum. In this paper, we consider the possibility that the spacetime in…