Related papers: Broad iron lines in Active Galactic Nuclei
Accreting black holes often show iron line emission in their X-ray spectra. When this line emission is very broad or variable then it is likely to originate from close to the black hole. The theory and observations of such broad and…
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…
Iron line emission is common in the X-ray spectra of accreting black holes. When the line emission is broad or variable then it is likely to originate from close to the black hole. X-ray irradiation of the accretion flow by the power-law…
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…
The shape and the intensity of the 6.4 keV iron line bring unique information on the geometrical and physical properties of the supermassive black hole and the surrounding accreting gas at the very center of Active Galactic Nuclei. While…
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,…
The fluorescent iron Ka line is a powerful observational probe of the inner regions of black holes accretion disks. Previous studies have assumed that only material outside the radius of marginal stability can contribute to the observed…
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…
The broad X-ray iron line, detected in many active galactic nuclei, is likely to be produced by fluorescence from the X-ray illuminated central parts of an accretion disc close to a supermassive black hole. The time-averaged shape of the…
The observed iron K-alpha fluorescence lines in Seyfert-1 galaxies provide strong evidence for an accretion disk near a supermassive black hole as a source of the line emission. These lines serve as powerful probes for examining the…
If an accretion disk around a black hole is illuminated by hard X-rays from non-thermal coronae, fluorescent iron lines will be emitted from the inner region of the accretion disk. The emission line profiles will show a variety of strong…
The observed iron K-alpha fluorescence lines in Seyfert galaxies provide strong evidence for an accretion disk near a supermassive black hole as a source of the line emission. Previous studies of line emission have considered only…
Several AGN and black hole X-ray binaries show a clear very broad iron line which is strong evidence that the black holes are rapidly spinning. Detailed analysis of these objects shows that the emission line is not significantly affected by…
We present an analysis of XMM-Newton observations of eleven Seyfert galaxies that appear to be missing a broad iron K alpha line. These objects represent a challenge to the established paradigm for active galactic nuclei, where a relatively…
We present angle-dependent, broad-band intensity spectra from accretion disks around black holes of 10 M$_\odot$. In our computations disks are assumed to be slim, which means that the radial advection is taken into account while computing…
Broad iron emission lines are observed in many accreting systems from black holes in AGN and X-ray binaries to neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries. The origin of the line broadening is often interpreted as due to dynamical broadening and…
The shapes of relativistic iron lines observed in spectra of candidate black holes carry the signatures of the strong gravitational fields in which the accretion disks lie. These lines result from the sum of the contributions of all images…
We have compared the 2001 XMM-Newton spectra of the stellar mass black hole binary XTE J1650-500 and the active galaxy MGC-6-30-15, focusing on the broad, excess emission features at ~4--7 keV displayed by both sources. Such features are…
X-ray observations of several active galactic nuclei show prominent iron K-shell fluorescence lines that are sculpted due to special and general relativistic effects. These observations are important because they probe the space-time…
The broad X-ray iron line seen in the spectra of many AGN is thought to originate from the inner regions of the putative black hole accretion disk, and hence provides a rare probe of that central region. In principle, future high throughput…