Related papers: On the behavior of the black hole candidate 1E 174…
We calculate the structure of a standard accretion disk with corona surrounding a massive Kerr black hole in general relativistic frame, in which the corona is assumed to be heated by the reconnection of the strongly buoyant magnetic fields…
The X-ray spectra of many active galactic nuclei (AGN) show a soft X-ray excess below 1-2 keV on top of the extrapolated high- energy power law. The origin of this component is uncertain. It could be a signature of relativistically blurred,…
The geometry of the accretion flow around stellar mass and supermassive black holes depends on the accretion rate. Broad iron emission lines originating from the irradiation of cool matter can indicate that there is an inner disk below a…
A soft X-ray excess above the 2-10 keV power law extrapolation is generally observed in AGN X-ray spectra. Presently there are two competitive models to explain it: blurred ionized reflection and warm Comptonisation. In the latter case,…
The black-hole binary Cygnus X-1 was observed for 17 ks with the Suzaku X-ray observatory in 2005 October, while it was in a low/hard state with a 0.7-300 keV luminosity of 4.6 x 10^37 erg/s. The XIS and HXD spectra, spanning 0.7-400 keV,…
We test accurate models of Comptonization spectra over the high quality data of the BeppoSAX long look at NGC 5548, allowing for different geometries of the scattering region, different temperatures of the input soft photon field and…
We present results from a 20 ksec RXTE observation of the black hole candidate Cyg X-1. We apply self-consistent accretion disk corona models to these hard state data and show that Comptonization in a spherical corona irradiated by soft…
The high-energy emission ($400$ keV $- 2$ MeV) of Cygnus X-1 --the most well-studied Galactic black hole-- was recently found to be strongly polarized. The origin of this radiation is still unknown. In this work, we suggest that it is the…
Most astrophysical sources powered by accretion onto a black hole, either of stellar mass or supermassive, when observed with hard X-rays show signs of a hot Comptonizing component in the flow, the so-called corona, with observed…
We analyse the spectra of black hole (BH) and neutron star (NS) X-ray binaries (XBs) in the hard state using archival RXTE observations. We find that there is a clear dichotomy in the strength of Comptonisation between NS and BH sources, as…
The time-dependent Comptonized output of a cool soft X-ray source drifting inward through an inhomogeneous hot inner disk or corona is numerically simulated. We propose that this scenario can explain from first principles the observed…
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 $\Gamma-\Re$…
The hot inner flow in black-hole X-ray binaries is not just a static corona rotating around the black hole, but it must be partially outflowing. We have developed a model, in which Comptonization takes place in this outflowing corona. We…
The formation of a cool disk in the innermost regions of black hole X-ray transient systems in the low hard state is investigated. Taking into account the combined cooling associated with the Compton and conductive energy transport…
We explore the accretion properties of the black hole X-ray binary \j1550\ during its outbursts in 1998/99 and 2000. We model the disk, corona, and reflection components of X-ray spectra taken with the {\it Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer}…
We present analysis and spectral fits of the RXTE data from the May/June 1999 outburst of Aql X-1. These data include observations in the rising portion of the hard state, in the soft state, and in the falling portion of the hard state. We…
Accretion-disc corona sources are high-inclination low-mass X-ray binaries in which the innermost regions are hidden and the observed X-ray emission is dominated by radiation scattered above the disc. 4U 1822-37 is a key binary system of…
We discuss the effects of a comptonizing corona on the appearance of the reflection components, and in particular of the reflection hump, in the X-rays spectra of accreting black holes. Indeed, in the framework of a thermal corona model, we…
Within the disk-corona model, it is natural to expect that a fraction of reflection photons from the disk are Compton scattered by the hot corona (reflection Comptonization), even if this effect is usually ignored in X-ray reflection…
The results of a spectral analysis, using {\it XMM-Newton} and {\it Chandra} data of the brightest ultra luminous X-ray source in the nearby galaxy M82, are presented. The spectrum of M82 X-1, was found to be unusually hard (photon spectral…