Related papers: High-density disc reflection spectroscopy of low-m…
We present a high density disc reflection spectral analysis of a sample of 17 Seyfert 1 galaxies to study the inner disc densities at different black hole mass scales and accretion rates. All the available XMM-Newton observations in the…
Understanding the nature of the accretion disk, its interplay with the X-ray corona, and assessing black hole spin demographics are some open challenges in astrophysics. In this work, we examine the predictions of the standard $\alpha$-disk…
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…
Multiple models have been suggested over the years to explain the structure and support of accretion disks around supermassive black holes, from the standard thin thermal-pressure-dominated $\alpha$-disk model to more recent models that…
It is widely known that in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and black hole X-ray binaries (BHXBs), there is a tight correlation among their radio luminosity ($L_R$), X-ray luminosity ($L_X$) and BH mass ($\mbh$), the so-called `fundamental…
X-ray reflection features observed from the innermost regions of accretion disks in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) allow important tests of accretion theory. In recent years it has been possible to use the Fe K line and reflection continuum…
(abridged) The soft excess seen in the X-ray spectra of many high mass accretion rate AGN can be well modelled by reflection from a partially ionised accretion disc. However, the derived parameters are often extreme, both in terms of the…
(Abridged) Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies have low mass black holes and mass accretion rates close to (or exceeding) Eddington, so a standard blackbody accretion disc should peak in the EUV. However, the lack of true absorption…
We present a large sample of type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGN) spectra taken with XMM-Newton, and fit them with both the conventional model (a power law and black body) and the relativistically-blurred photoionized disc reflection model…
It is commonly believed that the optical/UV and X-ray emissions in luminous AGN are produced in an accretion disk and an embedded hot corona respectively. The inverse Compton scattering of disk photons by hot electrons in the corona can…
This is the third paper in a series describing the spectroscopic properties of a sample of 39 AGN at $z \sim 1.5$, selected to cover a large range in black hole mass ($M_{BH}$) and Eddington ratio ($L/L_{Edd}$). In this paper, we continue…
We use global three dimensional radiation magneto-hydrodynamic simulations to study the properties of inner regions of accretion disks around a 5\times 10^8 solar mass black hole with mass accretion rates reaching 7% and 20% of the…
Radiation emitted from an accretion disk around a massive black hole is a widely discussed model for the UV/soft X-ray excess emission observed in the spectra of many AGN. A self-consistent calculation of the structure and the emerging…
The X-ray emission from bright active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is believed to originate in a hot corona lying above a cold, geometrically thin accretion disk. A highly concentrated corona located within $\sim10$ gravitational radii above the…
We have selected a sample of X-ray emitting active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in low-mass host galaxies (5e9-2e10 Msun) out to z~1. By comparing to AGNs in more massive hosts, we have found that the AGN spatial number density and the fraction…
The structure of the accretion flow onto supermassive black holes (SMBH) is not well understood. Standard disc models match to zeroth order in predicting substantial energy dissipation within optically-thick material producing a…
The 2-10 keV continuum of AGN is well represented by a single power law, generally attributed to a hot comptonizing medium, such as a corona above the accretion disk. At smaller energies the continuum displays an excess with respect to the…
The scaling relations between the black hole (BH) mass and soft lag properties for both active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and BH X-ray binaries (BHXRBs) suggest the same underlying physical mechanism at work in accreting BH systems spanning a…
We reexamine the hypothesis that the optical/UV/soft X-ray continuum of Active Galactic Nuclei is thermal emission from an accretion disk. Previous studies have shown that fitting the spectra with the standard, optically thick and…
We report first results from a large project to measure black hole (BH) mass in high accretion rate active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Such objects may be different from other AGNs in being powered by slim accretion disks and showing saturated…