Related papers: An XSPEC model to explore spectral features from b…
X-ray reflection spectra are an important component in the X-ray spectra of many active galactic nuclei and Galactic black hole candidates. It is likely that reflection takes place from highly ionized surfaces of the accretion disc in some…
We present briefly the first results obtained by the application of the KYNREFREV-reverberation model, which is ready for its use in XSPEC. This model computes the time dependent reflection spectra of the disc as a response to a flash of…
A phenomenological model of X-ray variability of accreting black holes is considered, where the variable emission is attributed to multiple active regions/perturbations moving radially towards the central black hole. The hard X-rays are…
Relativistic reflection features in the X-ray spectra of black hole binaries and AGNs originate from illumination of the inner part of the accretion disk by a hot corona. In the presence of high quality data and with the correct…
The models currently used for the analysis of the reflection spectra of black holes usually assume a disk with constant ionization and electron density. However, there is some debate on the impact of these assumptions on the estimate of the…
This dissertation elaborates on X-ray polarisation features of astrophysical environments near accreting black holes. Although the work was originally assigned to supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei, the results are also…
Narrow spectral features in the 5--6 keV range were recently discovered in the X-ray spectra of a few active galactic nuclei. We discuss the possibility that these features are due to localized spots which occur on the surface of an…
X-ray reflection off the accretion disc surrounding a black hole, together with the associated broad iron K$\alpha$ line, has been widely used to constrain the innermost accretion-flow geometry and black hole spin. Some recent measurements…
We present general relativistic radiation MHD simulations of super-Eddington accretion on a $10M_\odot$ black hole. We consider a range of mass accretion rates, black hole spins, and magnetic field configurations. We compute the spectra and…
The past 10 years have seen remarkable progress in our capability of analyzing reflection features in the X-ray spectra of accreting black holes. Today X-ray reflection spectroscopy is a mature technique and a powerful tool for studying the…
Fitting the thermal continuum emission of accreting black holes observed across X-ray bands represents one of the principle means of constraining the properties (mass and spin) of astrophysical black holes. Recent ''continuum fitting''…
In this paper, we review our current efforts to test General Relativity in the strong field regime by studying the reflection spectrum of supermassive black holes. So far we have analyzed 11 sources with observations of NuSTAR, Suzaku,…
Returning radiation is thought to play a key role in disk illumination of black hole X-ray binaries in the high-soft state, yet it has not been fully incorporated into XSPEC reflection models. We present a new table model for reflection…
General relativistic effects are strong near the black hole of an X-ray binary and significantly impact the total energy released at the innermost accretion disk's region. Our goal is to fully incorporate the black hole's spin and all the…
Accreting black holes show characteristic reflection features in their X-ray spectrum, including an iron K$\alpha$ line, resulting from hard X-ray continuum photons illuminating the accretion disk. The reverberation lag resulting from the…
These notes resulted from a series of lectures at the IAC winter school. They are designed to help students, especially those just starting in subject, to get hold of the fundamental tools used to study accretion powered sources. As such,…
Puffy disc is a numerical model, expected to capture the properties of the accretion flow in X-ray black hole binaries in the luminous, mildly sub-Eddington state. We fit the kerrbb and kynbb spectral models in XSPEC to synthetic spectra of…
Relativistic reflection features are commonly observed in the X-ray spectra of stellar-mass and supermassive black holes and originate from illumination of the inner part of the accretion disk by a hot corona. All the available relativistic…
The X-ray spectra of luminous Seyfert 1 galaxies often appear to be reflection dominated. In a number of Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies and galactic black holes in the very high state, the variability of the continuum and of the iron…
Black hole X-ray binaries display large outbursts, during which their properties are strongly variable. We develop a systematic spectral analysis of the 3-40 keV RXTE/PCA data in order to study the evolution of these systems and apply it to…