Related papers: Constraining Black Hole Spin Via X-ray Spectroscop…
Accreting black holes show characteristic 'reflection' features in their X-ray spectra, including the iron K$\alpha$ fluorescence line, which result from X-rays radiated by a compact central corona being reprocessed in the accretion disc…
We have explored spectral line profiles due to spiral patterns in accretion discs around black holes. A parametrization was employed for the shape and emissivity of spiral waves, which can be produced by non-axisymmetric perturbations…
The peaks of the spectra of the accretion disks surrounding massive black holes in quasars are in the far-UV or soft X-ray band, which are usually not observed. However, in the disk corona model, the soft photons from the disk are…
Recent observations of Sgr A* give strong constraints for possible models of the physical nature of Sgr A* and suggest the presence of a massive black~hole with M<2 10^6 M_sun surrounded by an accretion disk which we estimate to radiate at…
MCG-6-30-15, at a distance of 37 Mpc (z=0.008), is the archetypical Seyfert 1 galaxy showing very broad Fe K$\alpha$ emission. We present results from a joint NuSTAR and XMM-Newton observational campaign that, for the first time, allows a…
XMM-Newton RGS spectra of MCG-6-30-15 and Mrk 766 exhibit complex discrete structure, which was interpreted in a paper by Branduardi-Raymont et al. (2001) as evidence for the existence of relativistically broadened Lyman alpha emission from…
The development of techniques to measure accurately black hole spins is crucial to study the physics and astrophysics of these objects. X-ray reflection spectroscopy is currently the most popular method to estimate the spins of accreting…
We analyse a long archival XMM-Newton observation of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy Ton S180, using the latest reflection models to explore the high quality X-ray spectrum. We find that the iron line is relatively narrow and sharp, and…
We use the Novikov-Thorne thin disk model to fit the thermal continuum X-ray spectra of black hole X-ray binaries, and thereby extract the dimensionless spin parameter a* = a/M of the black hole as a parameter of the fit. We summarize the…
We present the results of a NuSTAR study of the dynamically confirmed stellar-mass black hole GS 1354-645. The source was observed during its 2015 "hard" state outburst; we concentrate on spectra from two relatively bright phases. In the…
In a previous paper, one of us calculated iron K$\alpha$ line profiles emitted from possible accretion disks around traversable wormholes as a first step to use X-ray reflection spectroscopy to search for astrophysical wormholes in active…
Black hole X-ray binaries are ideal environments to test the accretion phenomena in the presence of strong gravitational potentials. KERRBB held an important place in the X-ray spectral continuum method for measuring the black hole spin…
By performing two-dimensional axisymmetric general relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulations with spin parameter $a^*$ varying from -0.9 to 0.9, we investigate the dependence on the black hole spin of the energy flow from…
Timing analysis of a ~95 ks long XMM-Newton observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG-6-30-15 is presented. Model-independent tools have been used with the intent of resolving the different components that produce the observed flux and…
We analyse a 75ks XMM-Newton observation of PG 2112+059 performed in November 2005 and compare it with a 15ks XMM-Newton observation taken in May 2003. PG 2112+059 was found in a deep minimum state as its 0.2-12 keV flux decreased by a…
We present results from a coordinated $XMM$-$Newton$+$NuSTAR$ observation of the type 1.8 Seyfert galaxy IRAS 13197-1627. This is a highly complex source, with strong contributions from relativistic reflection from the inner accretion disk,…
Based on a new estimation of their thickness, the global properties of relativistic slim accretion disks are investigated in this work. The resulting emergent spectra are calculated using the relativistic ray-tracing method, in which we…
Several massive black holes exhibit flux variability on time scales that correspond to source sizes of the order of few Schwarzschild radii. We survey the potential of near-infrared and X-ray polarimetry to constrain physical properties of…
We present an X-ray spectral analysis of a black hole X-ray binary SLX 1746-331 during the 2023 outburst using five \textit{Insight}-HXMT observations. We jointly use the reflection model \texttt{relxillcp} and the general relativistic…
Accretion disks around black holes radiate a significant fraction of the rest mass of the accreting material in the form of thermal radiation from within a few gravitational radii of the black hole ($ r \lesssim 20 G M / c^{2}$). In…