Related papers: Iron K Lines from Gamma Ray Bursts
Significant variability in broad emission line strengths of active galactic nuclei (AGN) over months to years has been observed, often accompanied by intrinsic continuum changes. Such spectral variability challenges the traditional AGN…
Sources of high-energy photons have important applications in almost all areas of research. However, the photon flux and intensity of existing sources is strongly limited for photon energies above a few hundred keV. Here we show that a…
We discuss the hard X-ray properties of the Seyfert galaxy Ton S 180, based upon the analysis of ASCA data. We find the X-ray flux varied by a factor ~2 on a time scale of a few thousand seconds. The source showed significantly higher…
Recently iron emission features have been observed in several X-ray afterglows of GRBs. It is found that the energy obtained from the illuminating continuum which produces the emission lines is much higher than that of the main burst.The…
Strong wind-wind collisions in massive binaries generate a very hot plasma that frequently produces a moderately strong iron line. The morphology of this line depends upon the properties of the wind interaction zone and its orientation with…
We propose that repeated photoexcitation/ionization of high Z atoms of highly relativistic flows by star light in dense stellar regions followed by emission of decay/recombination photons, which are beamed and boosted to gamma ray energies…
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…
We use observations of heavy elements in very metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] < -2.5) in order to place constraints on the viability of collapsar models as a significant source of the r-process. We combine bipolar explosion nucleosynthesis…
This paper presents the set of plane-parallel model atmosphere equations for a very hot neutron star (X-ray burst source). The model equations assume both hydrostatic and radiative equilibrium, and the equation of state of an ideal gas in…
We briefly review the theory of gamma ray production in solar flares and present the highlights of the observations and their implications. Specifically: (i) the gamma ray data show that a large fraction of the released flare energy is in…
We have modeled a small sample of Seyfert galaxies that were previously identified as having simple X-ray spectra with little intrinsic absorption. The sources in this sample all contain moderately broad components of Fe K-shell emission…
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…
A gamma-ray line production calculation in astrophysics depends on i) the composition and energy source spectrum of the energetic particles, ii) the propagation model, and iii) the nuclear cross sections. The main difficulty for model…
Archival XMM-Newton data on the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 4051, taken in relatively high and low flux states, offer a unique opportunity to explore the complexity of its X-ray spectrum. We find the hard X-ray band to be significantly…
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…
Recent observations of X-ray afterglows reveal the presence of a redshifted Kalpha iron line in emission in four bursts. In GRB 991216, the line was detected by the low energy grating of Chandra, which showed the line to be broad, with a…
We present a model of the vertical stratification and the spectra of an irradiated medium under the assumption of constant pressure. Such a solution has properties intermediate between constant density models and hydrostatic equilibrium…
Nayakshin & Kazanas (2002) have considered the time-dependent illumination of an accretion disc in Active Galactic Nuclei, in the lamppost model. We extend their study to the flare model, which postulates the release of a large X-ray flux…
X-ray lines have been recently detected in the afterglows of a few gamma-ray bursts. We derive constraints on the physical conditions in the line-emitting gas, using as an example the multiple K$_\alpha$ lines detected by Reeves et al.…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) must originate from low baryon load, ultrarelativistic outflows; however, slower, more baryon-rich outflows (BROs) should also arise in connection with GRBs as ``circum-jet winds'' and/or ``failed GRBs''. We study…