Related papers: A comprehensive range of X-ray ionized reflection …
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…
X-ray reflection signatures are observed around multiple classes of accreting compact objects. Modelling these features yield important constraints on the physics of accretion disks, motivating the development of X-ray reflection models…
Reflection of X-rays from cool material around a black hole is one of the few observational diagnostics of the accretion flow geometry. Models of this reflected spectrum generally assume that the accretion disk can be characterized by…
We present a new and complete library of synthetic spectra for modeling the component of emission that is reflected from an illuminated accretion disk. The spectra were computed using an updated version of our code XILLVER that incorporates…
We review recent progress on the modeling and use of reflection spectra from irradiated and ionized accretion discs. On the computational side, calculations of reflection spectra from discs with non-uniform density structure have shown that…
Current models of the spectrum of X-rays reflected from accretion disks around black holes and other compact objects are commonly calculated assuming that the density of the disk atmosphere is constant within several Thomson depths from the…
The X-ray spectra of accreting stellar-mass black hole systems exhibit spectral features due to reflection, especially broad iron K alpha emission lines. We investigate the reflection by the accretion disc that can be expected in the…
We present the results of reflection calculations that treat the relevant physics with a minimum of assumptions. The temperature and ionization structure of the top five Thomson depths of an illuminated disc are calculated while also…
We present new models for illuminated accretion disks, their structure and reprocessed emission. We consider the effects of incident X-rays on the surface of an accretion disk by solving simultaneously the equations of radiative transfer,…
We report results obtained from six XMM-Newton observations of the Seyfert galaxy 1H 0419-577. Here we show that the X-ray spectrum and variability are well described by a two-component model comprising a power law with constant spectral…
We compute rest-frame reflection spectra and the corresponding energy-dependent linear polarization degree and angle for (un)polarized single-temperature blackbody spectra impinging on a partially ionized constant-density optically thick…
Multiple reflection of X-rays may be important when an accretion disc and its hot corona have a complicated geometry, or if returning radiation due to gravitational light bending is important, or in emission from a funnel such as proposed…
When a thermonuclear X-ray burst ignites on an accreting neutron star, the accretion disk undergoes sudden strong X-ray illumination, which can drive a range of processes in the disk. Observations of superbursts, with durations of several…
We discuss the expected X-ray spectral and variability properties of black hole accretion discs at high luminosity, under the hypothesis that radiation pressure dominated discs are subject to violent clumping instabilities and, as a result,…
The reflection spectrum produced by a cold medium illuminated by X-ray photons is not isotropic and its shape depends on the emission angle. In the reflection spectrum of an accretion disk of a black hole, the value of the emission angle…
X-ray reflection models are used to constrain the properties of the accretion disk, such as the degree of ionization of the gas and the elemental abundances. In combination with general relativistic ray tracing codes, additional parameters…
We present a comprehensive study of the emission spectra from accreting sources. We use our new reflection code to compute the reflected spectra from an accretion disk illuminated by X-rays. This set of models covers different values of…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are the most luminous persistent objects in the universe. An excess of X-ray emission below about 2 keV, called soft-excess, is very common in Type 1 AGN spectra. The origin of this feature remains debated.…
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…
Irradiation of the accretion disc causes reflection signatures in the observed X-ray spectrum, encoding important information about the disc structure and density. A Type I X-ray burst will strongly irradiate the accretion disc and alter…