Related papers: X-ray Reverberation Observational Modelling in Act…
We develop a physically motivated, spherical corona model to investigate the frequency-dependent time lags in AGN. The model includes the effects of Compton up-scattering between the disc UV photons and coronal electrons, and the subsequent…
A long-standing question in active galactic nucleus (AGN) research is how the corona is heated up to produce X-ray radiation much stronger than that arising from the viscous heating within the corona. In this paper, we carry out detailed…
X-ray reverberation is a powerful technique which maps out the structure of the inner regions of accretion disks around black holes using the echoes of the coronal emission reflected by the disk. While the theory of X-ray reverberation has…
The X-ray emitting corona irradiates and ionises the surface of the inner accretion disc in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). The ionisation parameter of the inner disc at a radius $r$ from the black hole, $\xi(r)$, can be used to infer…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) light curves observed with different wavebands show that the variability in longer wavelength bands lags the variability in shorter wavelength bands. Measuring these lags, or reverberation mapping, is used to…
The reflection of X-rays at the inner accretion disk around black holes imprints relativistically broadened features in the observed spectrum. Aside from the black hole properties and the ionization and density of the accretion disk, these…
The hard X-ray emission of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is believed to originate from the hot coronae above the cold accretion discs. The hard X-ray spectral index is found to be correlated with the Eddington ratio, and the hard X-ray…
Over the last few years X-ray observations of broad-line radio galaxies (BLRGs) by ASCA, RXTE and BeppoSAX have shown that these objects seem to exhibit weaker X-ray reflection features (such as the iron K\alpha line) than radio-quiet…
Accreting black holes show characteristic reflection features in their X-ray spectrum, including an iron K$\alpha$ line, resulting from hard X-ray continuum photons illuminating the accretion disk. The reverberation lag resulting from the…
X-ray spectroscopy offers an opportunity to study the complex mixture of emitting and absorbing components in the circumnuclear regions of active galactic nuclei, and to learn about the accretion process that fuels AGN and the feedback of…
Observationally, it is found that there is a strong correlation between the hard X-ray photon index $\Gamma$ and the Compton reflection scaling factor $\Re$ in active galactic nuclei. In this paper, we propose that the $\Gamma-\Re$…
Accretion disk coronae are believed to account for X-ray emission in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). In this paper the observed emission is assumed to be due to a population of relativistic, non-thermal electrons (e.g. produced in a flare)…
The relativistically broad X-ray iron line seen in many AGN spectra is thought to originate from the central regions of the putative black hole accretion disk. Both the line profile and strength will vary in response to rapid variability of…
The X-ray spectra of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are complex and vary rapidly in time as seen in recent observations. Magnetic flares above the accretion disk can account for the extreme variability of AGN. They also explain the observed…
Accreting black holes are thought to swallow matter in the form of a disk and a hot cloud of plasma that glows brightly in X-rays, known as the corona. The X-ray emitting region is far too small to be directly imaged, but rapid variability…
The X-ray emission from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is highly variable. Measurements of time lags (characterised by lag spectra) between variability in the light curves in energy bands corresponding to directly observed continuum emission…
We study the Fourier time-lags due to the Comptonization of disc-emitted photons in a spherical, uniform, and stationary X-ray corona, which located on the rotational axis of the black hole. We use Monk, a general relativistic Monte-Carlo…
Continuum reverberation mapping of AGN can provide new insight into the nature and geometry of the accretion flow. Some of the X-rays from the central corona irradiating the disc are absorbed, increasing the local disc temperature. This…
The innermost regions of accretion disks around black holes are strongly irradiated by X-rays that are emitted from a highly variable, compact corona, in the immediate vicinity of the black hole. The X-rays that are seen reflected from the…
We present a new release of the RELTRANS model to fit the complex cross-spectrum of accreting black holes as a function of energy. The model accounts for continuum lags and reverberation lags self-consistently in order to consider the…