Related papers: Iron K Line Diagnostics in Active Galactic Nuclei
Emission lines that trace elements subject to strong depletion onto grains provide a means for probing the dust content of AGNs. Examples include infrared [FeII] and optical [CaII] lines. The excitation mechanisms underlying the [FeII]…
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…
We report on the results of 18 observations of the core, or peak, of the Fe K emission line at $\sim 6.4$ keV in 15 Seyfert I galaxies using the {\it Chandra} High Energy Grating (HEG). These data afford the highest precision measurements…
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…
We discuss black hole spin measurements employing the relativistic iron line profiles in the X-ray domain. We investigate the iron line band for two representative sources -- MCG -6-30-15 (active galaxy) and GX 339-4 (X-ray binary). We…
If an accretion disk around a black hole is illuminated by hard X-rays from non-thermal coronae, fluorescent iron lines will be emitted from the inner region of the accretion disk. The emission line profiles will show a variety of strong…
In this paper we give a brief review of the astrophysics of active galactic nuclei (AGN). After a general introduction motivating the study of AGNs, we discuss our present understanding of the inner workings of the central engines, most…
X-ray observations provide a powerful tool to probe the central engines of active galactic nuclei (AGN). A hard X-ray continuum is produced from deep within the accretion flow onto the supermassive black hole, and all optically thick…
The iron K$\alpha$ line commonly observed in the X-ray spectrum of both stellar-mass and supermassive black hole candidates originates from X-ray fluorescence of the inner accretion disk. Accordingly, it can be used to map the spacetime…
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 line emission. These lines serve as powerful probes for examining the…
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…
Short X-ray reverberation lags are seen across a broad Fe-K energy band in more than twenty active galactic nuclei (AGNs). This broad iron line feature in the lag spectrum is most significant in super-Eddington sources such as Ark 564…
We present an analysis of ionized X-ray disk winds observed in the Fe K band of four stellar-mass black holes observed with Chandra, including 4U 1630-47, GRO J1655-40, H 1743-322, and GRS 1915+105. High-resolution photoionization grids…
We present new estimates of redshift-dependent luminosity functions of IR lines detectable by SPICA/SAFARI and excited both by star formation and by AGN activity. The new estimates improve over previous work by using updated evolutionary…
We perform a first study of time-dependent X-ray reflection in photo-ionized accretion disks. We assume a step-functional change in the X-ray flux and use a simplified prescription to describe the time evolution of the illuminated gas…
While a broad profile of the Fe K$\alpha$ emission line is frequently found in the X-ray spectra of typical Seyfert galaxies, the situation is unclear in the case of Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s)---an extreme subset which are…
We observed the Galactic black hole GX 339-4 with the Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (HETGS) for 75 ksec during the decline of its 2002-2003 outburst. The sensitivity of this observation provides an unprecedented…
We report the detection of a narrow Fe-K emission line in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 with the Chandra High-Energy Transmission Gratings. In the galaxy frame we measure a center energy of 6.40 \pm 0.03 keV, a FWHM of 4515 (+3525,-2645)…
This is the third in a series of papers reporting on a large reverberation-mapping campaign aimed to study the properties of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with high accretion rates. We present new results on the variability of the optical…
X-ray reflection spectra from photoionized accretion discs in active galaxies are presented for a wide range of illumination conditions. The energy, equivalent width (EW) and flux of the Fe K line are shown to depend strongly on the ratio…