Related papers: Compton reflection and iron fluorescence in AGN an…
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…
Recent studies have proposed that the nuclear millimeter continuum emission observed in nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) could be created by the same population of electrons that gives rise to the X-ray emission that is ubiquitously…
We present the first results from a detailed spectral-timing analysis of a long ($\sim$130 ks) XMM-Newton observation and quasi-simultaneous NuSTAR and Swift observations of the highly-accreting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 1044. The…
The iron K$\alpha$ line commonly observed in the X-ray spectrum of black hole candidates is produced by X-ray fluorescence of the inner accretion disk. This line can potentially be quite a powerful tool to probe the spacetime geometry…
We use the publicly available XMM-Newton archive to select a sample of 20 active galactic nuclei (AGN) known to exhibit reverberation signatures caused by the reflection of X-rays from the corona off the accretion disc that feeds the…
Line emission from an accretion disk and a corotating hot spot about a rotating black hole are considered for possible signatures of the frame-dragging effect. We explicitly compare integrated line profiles from a geometrically thin disk…
Understanding the dynamics behind black hole state transitions and the changes they reflect in outbursts has become long-standing problem. The X-ray reflection spectrum describes the interaction between the hard X-ray source (the power-law…
We present an analysis of five Suzaku observations of the bright Seyfert1 galaxy IC 4329A. The broad energy band and high signal-to-noise ratio of the data give new constraints on the iron K alpha line profile and its relationship with the…
We use simultaneous Swift and RXTE observations of the black hole binary GX 339-4 to measure the inner radius of its accretion disk in the hard state down to 0.4% L_{Edd} via modeling of the thermal disk emission and the relativistically…
The models that seek to explain the reflection spectrum in black hole binaries usually invoke a point-like primary source of hard X-rays. This source illuminates the accretion disk and gives rise to the discrete (lines) and…
When Beppo-SAX measured the 0.1--12 keV spectrum of RE J1034+396, observations in the optical, UV and EUV were also taken within a few weeks. This multiwavelength spectrum placed very strong constraints on its unusually hot big blue bump…
We present 6.4 keV iron K-alpha fluorescent line profiles predicted for a relativistic black hole accretion disk in the presence of a spiral motion in Kerr geometry, the work extended from an earlier literature motivated by recent…
We analyze observations obtained with the Chandra X-ray Observatory of bright Compton thick active galactic nuclei (AGNs), those with column densities in excess of 1.5 x 10^{24} cm^{-2} along the lines of sight. We therefore view the…
X-ray reverberation is a powerful technique which maps out the structure of the inner regions of accretion disks around black holes using the echoes of the coronal emission reflected by the disk. While the theory of X-ray reverberation has…
The bright Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG-6-30-15 has provided some of the best evidence to date for the existence of supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei. Observations with ASCA revealed an X-ray iron line profile shaped by strong…
Recent X-ray observations of microquasars and Seyfert galaxies reveal broad emission lines in their spectra, which can arise in the innermost parts of accretion disks. Simulations indicate that at low inclination angle the line is measured…
The fraction of AGN with photoelectric absorption in the X-rays ranging from NH of 10^{22} up to about 10^{24} cm^{-2} (Compton-thin) appears observationally to be anticorrelated to their luminosity Lx. This recently found evidence is used…
We report on a 100 ks Suzaku observation of the bright, nearby (z=0.008486) Seyfert 1.9 galaxy MCG -5-23-16. The broad-band (0.4-100 keV) X-ray spectrum allows us to determine the nature of the high energy emission with little ambiguity.…
We present an analysis of the observed broad iron line feature and putative warm absorber in the long 2001 XMM-Newton observation of the Seyfert-1.2 galaxy MCG-6-30-15. The new "kerrdisk" model we have designed for simulating line emission…
The relativistically-broadened reflection spectrum, observed in both AGN and X-ray binaries, has proven to be a powerful probe of the properties of black holes and the environments in which they reside. Being emitted from the inner-most…