Related papers: Line Profiles from Different Accretion Engine Geom…
Preliminary results from an X-ray spectral study of Seyfert 1 galaxies with ASCA and RXTE are presented. From an analysis of X-ray reprocessing features of Compton reflection and Fe K-alpha fluorescence, it is found that iron line strength…
X-ray illumination of accretion disks is an invaluable diagnostic of the structure of these disks because of the associated iron K$\alpha$ emission. Here we point out that the resulting reflected spectra depend very sensitively on the…
We have calculated the spectrum and polarization of a standard thin accretion disk with parameters appropriate for a bright quasar. This model improves upon previous work by including ultraviolet metal line opacities, assumed for now to be…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are axisymmetric systems to first order; their observed properties are likely strong functions of inclination with respect to our line of sight, yet the specific inclinations of all but a few AGN are generally…
We study the radial ionization structure at the surface of an X-ray illuminated accretion disk. We plot the expected iron K$\alpha$ line energy as a function of the Eddington ratio and of the distance of the emitting matter from the central…
We analyze X-ray spectra of heavily obscured (N_H > 10^{24} cm^{-2}) active galaxies obtained with Chandra, concentrating on the iron K alpha fluorescence line. We measure very large equivalent widths in most cases, up to 5 keV in the most…
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…
We present an extended scheme for the calculation of the profiles of emission lines from accretion discs around rotating black holes. The scheme includes discs with angular momenta which are parallel and antiparallel with respect to the…
The variability of the Fe K alpha line near 6.5 keV seems to be reduced compared to the variability of the hard X-rays which presumably drive the line emission. This is observed both in active galactic nuclei and galactic black hole…
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 emission. Here we present an analysis of the geometrical and kinematic…
We present modeling results for the reprocessed radiation expected from magnetic flares above AGN accretion disks. Relativistic corrections for the orbital motion of the flare and for the curved space-time in the vicinity of the black hole…
We present a model which relates the Broad Emission Line Regions of AGN to the accretion mechanism. Based on the Keplerian assumption for the high velocity clouds of the gas responsible for the production of the Broad Emission Lines, we…
Recently, Narayan & Raymond (1999) proposed that the thermal emission lines from the hot plasma in advection dominated accretion flows (ADAFs) are potentially observable with the next generation of X-ray observatories, with which the…
Relativistic X-ray disk-lines have been found in multiple neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries, in close analogy with black holes across the mass-scale. These lines have tremendous diagnostic power and have been used to constrain stellar…
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…
Observations of fluorescent iron lines from accreting black holes provide one of the best tests of strong field gravity available to date, and the only current observational tool to probe black hole spacetime. However, the two most widely…
One of the most important problems in the study of active galaxies is understanding the detailed geometry, physics, and evolution of the central engines and their environments. The leading models involve an accretion disk and torus…
We present observational evidence supporting the presence of a stratified accretion disk wind in active galactic nuclei (AGN), based on multi-wavelength spectroscopic analysis of broad and narrow emission lines. The diversity in emission…
To gain a better understanding of the inner disc region that comprises active galactic nuclei it is necessary to understand the pattern in which the disc is illuminated (the emissivity profile) by X-rays emitted from the continuum source…
We present a full set of model atmosphere equations for the accretion disk around a supermassive black hole irradiated by hard X-ray lamp of power-law spectral distribution. Model equations allow for multiple Compton scattering of radiation…