A Self-Consistent Study of the ionized X-ray reflection
in AGN and GBHCs.
Sergei Nayakshin
Demosthenes Kazanas
Tim Kallman
Abstract
The problem of computing the reflected continuum and lines off the
surface of an accretion disk is a central one for interpreting X-ray
observations of AGN and GBHCs. With the advent of new ever more
sensitive X-ray telescopes, the reflection component and the iron line
emission profile provide superb tools to test different accretion disk
theories and geometries. However, past theoretical studies of the
X-ray reflection in accretion disks have always assumed a fixed gas
density in the X-ray illuminated layer of the disk. We here report a
development of a new X-ray ionization code which matches or
exceeds all the previously developed codes in the treatment of the
ionization balance and radiation transfer, and also self-consistently
solves for the gas density based on the pressure balance.
We show the ionized layer temperature structure, and the resulting
spectra for a set of parameter values. We find that the
self-consistent gas density determination dramatically changes the
behavior of the X-ray reprocessing features with luminosity compared
with the past studies, and that it in fact provides natural
explanations for many of the otherwise unexplained X-ray
observations.
File translated from TEX by TTH, version 2.32.
On 16 Jul 1999, 09:19.