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1.
We reanalyse the ASCA and BeppoSAX data of MCG–6-30-15, using a double-zone model for the iron line profile. In this model, the X-ray source is located around ≈10 Schwarzschild radii and the regions interior and exterior to the X-ray source produce the line emission. We find that this model fits the data with a similar reduced χ 2 to the standard single-zone model. Thus we show that the presence of a broad iron line feature does not necessarily require that the X-ray source be located close to the last stable orbit or in the disc rotation axis.
Within the framework of this model, the best-fitting inclination angle of the source     for the intermediate-intensity ASCA data set is compatible with that determined by earlier modelling of optical lines. The observed variability of the line profile with intensity can be explained as variations of the X-ray source size. That several active galactic nuclei with broad lines have the peak centroid near 6.4 keV can be explained under certain conditions.
We also show that the simultaneous broad-band observations of this source by BeppoSAX rule out the Comptonization model which was an alternative to the standard inner-disc one. We thereby strengthen the case that line broadening occurs as a result of the strong gravitational influence of a black hole.  相似文献   

2.
We describe a new approach to calculating photon trajectories and gravitational lensing effects in the strong gravitational field of the Kerr black hole. These techniques are applied to explore both the imaging and spectral properties of photons emitted from an accretion disc, which perform multiple orbits of the central mass before escaping to infinity. Viewed at large inclinations, these higher-order photons contribute ∼20 per cent of the total luminosity of the system for a Schwarzschild hole, while for an extreme Kerr black hole this fraction rises to ∼60 per cent. In more realistic models, these photons will be reabsorbed by the disc at large distances from the hole, but this returning radiation could provide a physical mechanism to resolve the discrepancy between the predicted and observed optical/ultraviolet colours in active galactic nuclei. Conversely, at low inclinations, higher-order images reintercept the disc plane close to the black hole, so need not be absorbed by the disc if this is within the plunging region. These photons form a bright ring carrying approximately 10 per cent of the total disc luminosity for a Schwarzschild black hole. The spatial separation between the inner edge of the disc and the ring is similar to the size of the event horizon. This is resolvable for supermassive black holes with proposed X-ray interferometery missions such as the Microarcsecond X-ray Imaging Mission (MAXIM), and so has the potential to provide an observational test of strong field gravity.  相似文献   

3.
We report the discovery of emission features in the X-ray spectrum of GRO J1655–40 obtained with RXTE during the observation of 1997 February 26. We have fitted the features first by two Gaussian lines which in four spectra analysed have average energies of 5.85±0.08 and 7.32±0.13 keV, strongly suggestive that these are the red- and blueshifted wings of an iron disc line. These energies imply a velocity of ∼0.33 c . The blue wing is less bright than in the calculated profiles of disc lines near a black hole subject to Doppler boosting; however, known Fe absorption lines in GRO J1655–40 at energies between ∼7 and 8 keV can reduce the apparent brightness of the blue wing. Secondly, we have fitted the spectra using the disc line model of Laor based on a full relativistic treatment plus an absorption line, and show that good fits are obtained. This gives a rest-frame energy of the disc line between 6.4 and 6.8 keV, indicating that the line is iron K α emission probably of significantly ionized material. The Laor model shows that the line originates in a region of the accretion disc extending from ∼10 Schwarzschild radii from the black hole outwards. The line is direct evidence for the black hole nature of the compact object, and is the first discovery of a highly red- and blueshifted iron disc line in a Galactic source.  相似文献   

4.
We study properties of Fe K lines of a large sample of Seyfert 1s observed by ASCA . Fits with power laws and Gaussian lines yield the average linewidth and equivalent width of 0.22±0.03 keV and 0.13±0.01 keV, respectively. Thus, the typical lines are weak and narrow. We then obtain the average line profile of all our spectra, and find it to consist of a narrow core and blue and red wings, with the red wing being much weaker than that of e.g. MCG −6-30-15. We obtain three average spectra of Seyferts grouped according to the hardness, and find the equivalent width of the core (originating in a remote medium) to be ≃50 eV in all three cases. The wings are well fitted by a broad line from a disc with strong relativistic effects. Its equivalent width correlates with the slope, increasing from ∼70 eV for the hardest spectrum to ∼120 eV for the softest one. The inner disc radius decreases correspondingly from ∼40 to ∼10 gravitational radii, and the fitted disc inclination is ∼45°. The obtained correlation between the slope and the strength of the broad Fe K line is found to be consistent with the previously found correlation of the slope and Compton reflection.  相似文献   

5.
We analysed simultaneous archival XMM–Newton and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer observations of the X-ray binary and black hole candidate Swift J  1753.5−0127  . In a previous analysis of the same data, a soft thermal component was found in the X-ray spectrum, and the presence of an accretion disc extending close to the innermost stable circular orbit was proposed. This is in contrast with the standard picture in which the accretion disc is truncated at large radii in the low/hard state. We tested a number of spectral models and found that several of them fit the observed spectra without the need of a soft disc-like component. This result implies that the classical paradigm of a truncated accretion disc in the low/hard state cannot be ruled out by these data. We further discovered a broad iron emission line between 6 and 7 keV in these data. From fits to the line profile we found an inner disc radius that ranges between ∼6 and 16 gravitational radii, which can be in fact much larger, up to ∼250 gravitational radii, depending on the model used to fit the continuum and the line. We discuss the implications of these results in the context of a fully or partially truncated accretion disc.  相似文献   

6.
We present Fe Kα line profiles from and images of relativistic discs with finite thickness around a rotating black hole using a novel code. The line is thought to be produced by iron fluorescence of a relatively cold X-ray-illuminated material in the innermost parts of the accretion disc and provides an excellent diagnostic of accretion flows in the vicinity of black holes. Previous studies have concentrated on the case of a thin, Keplerian accretion disc. This disc must become thicker and sub-Keplerian with increasing accretion rates. These can affect the line profiles and in turn can influence the estimation of the accretion disc and black hole parameters from the observed line profiles. We here embark on, for the first time, a fully relativistic computation which offers key insights into the effects of geometrical thickness and the sub-Keplerian orbital velocity on the line profiles. We include all relativistic effects such as frame-dragging, Doppler boost, time dilation, gravitational redshift and light bending. We find that the separation and the relative height between the blue and red peaks of the line profile diminish as the thickness of the disc increases. This code is also well suited to produce accretion disc images. We calculate the redshift and flux images of the accretion disc and find that the observed image of the disc strongly depends on the inclination angle. The self-shadowing effect appears remarkable for a high inclination angle, and leads to the black hole shadow being in this case, completely hidden by the disc itself.  相似文献   

7.
Several AGN and black hole X-ray binaries show a clear very broad iron line, which is strong evidence that the black holes are rapidly spinning. Detailed analysis of these objects shows that the emission line is not significantly affected by absorption and that the source variability is principally due to variation in amplitude of a power-law. Underlying this is a much less variable, relativistically-smeared, reflection-dominated, component which carries the imprint of strong gravity at a few gravitational radii. The strong gravitational light bending in these regions then explains the power-law variability as due to changes in height of the primary X-ray source above the disc. The reflection component, in particular its variability and the profile of the iron line, enables us to study the innermost regions around an accreting, spinning, black hole.  相似文献   

8.
We present a general relativistic accretion disc model and its application to the soft-state X-ray spectra of black hole binaries. The model assumes a flat, optically thick disc around a rotating Kerr black hole. The disc locally radiates away the dissipated energy as a blackbody. Special and general relativistic effects influencing photons emitted by the disc are taken into account. The emerging spectrum, as seen by a distant observer, is parametrized by the black hole mass and spin, the accretion rate, the disc inclination angle and the inner disc radius.
We fit the ASCA soft-state X-ray spectra of LMC X-1 and GRO J1655-40 by this model. We find that, having additional limits on the black hole mass and inclination angle from optical/UV observations, we can constrain the black hole spin from X-ray data. In LMC X-1 the constraint is weak, and we can only rule out the maximally rotating black hole. In GRO J1655-40 we can limit the spin much better, and we find 0.68 a 0.88 . Accretion discs in both sources are radiation-pressure dominated. We do not find Compton reflection features in the spectra of any of these objects.  相似文献   

9.
We investigate the properties of fluorescent iron lines that arise as a result of the illumination of a black hole accretion disc by an X-ray source located above the disc's surface. We study in detail the light-bending model of the variability of the lines, extending previous work on the subject. We indicate that the bending of photon trajectories to the equatorial plane (a distinct property of the Kerr metric) is the most feasible effect underlying the reduced variability of the lines observed in several objects. A model involving an X-ray source with a varying radial distance, located within a few central gravitational radii around a rapidly rotating black hole, close to the disc's surface, may explain both the elongated red wing of the line profile and the complex variability pattern observed in MCG–6-30-15 by XMM–Newton . We also point out that illumination by radiation that returns to the disc (following the previous reflection) contributes significantly to the formation of the line profile in some cases. As a result of this effect, the line profile always has a pronounced blue peak (which is not observed in the deep minimum state in MCG–6-30-15), unless the reflecting material is absent within the innermost 2–3 gravitational radii.  相似文献   

10.
The polarization from a spot orbiting around Schwarzschild and extreme Kerr black holes is studied. We assume different models of local polarization. Firstly, as a toy model we set the local polarization vector either normal to the disc plane, or perpendicular to the toroidal magnetic field. Then we examine the more realistic situation with a spot arising due to the emission from the primary source above the disc. We employ either Rayleigh single scattering or Compton multiple scattering approximations. The time dependence of the degree and angle of polarization during the spot revolution is examined as a function of the observer's inclination angle and black hole angular momentum. The gravitational and Doppler shifts, lensing effect as well as time delays are taken into account. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)  相似文献   

11.
Spectra of Seyfert 1s are commonly modelled as emission from an X-ray-illuminated flat accretion disc orbiting a central black hole. This provides both reprocessed and direct components of the X-ray emission, as required by observations of individual objects, and possibly a fraction of the cosmological X-ray background. There is some observational motivation for us to at least consider the role that an effectively concave disc surface might play: (1) a reprocessed fraction ≳1/2 in some Seyferts and possibly in the X-ray background, and (2) the commonality of a sharp iron line peak for Seyferts at 6.4 keV despite a dependence of peak location on inclination angle for flat disc models. Here it is shown that a concave disc may not only provide a larger total fraction of reprocessed photons, but can also reprocess a much larger fraction of photons in its outer regions compared with a flat disc. This reduces the sensitivity of the 6.4-keV peak location to the inner disc inclination angle because the outer regions are less affected by Doppler and gravitational effects. If the X-ray source is isotropic, the reprocessed fraction is directly determined by the concavity. If the X-ray source is anisotropic, the location of iron line peak can still be determined by concavity but the total reflected fraction need not be as large as for the isotropic emitter case. The geometric calculations herein are applicable to general accretion disc systems illuminated from the centre.  相似文献   

12.
The fluorescent iron K α emission-line profile provides an excellent probe of the innermost regions of active galactic nuclei. Fe  xxv and Fe  xxvi in diffuse plasma above the accretion disc can affect the X-ray spectrum by iron K α resonant absorption. This in turn can influence the interpretation of the data and the estimation of the accretion disc and black hole parameters. We embark on a fully relativistic computation of this effect and calculate the iron line profile in the framework of a specific model in which rotating, highly ionized and resonantly absorbing plasma occurs close to the black hole. This can explain the features seen in the iron K α line profile recently obtained by Nandra et al. for the type 1 Seyfert galaxy NGC 3516. We show that the redshift of this feature can be mainly gravitational in origin and accounted for without the need to invoke fast accretion of matter on to the black hole. New X-ray satellites such as XMM , ASTRO-E and Chandra provide excellent opportunities to test the model against high-quality observational data.  相似文献   

13.
We report on a 50-ks observation of the bright Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG–6-30-15 with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer . The data clearly show the broad fluorescent iron line (equivalent width ∼ 250 eV) and the Compton reflection continuum at higher energies. A comparison of the iron line and the reflection continuum has enabled us to constrain the reflective fraction and the elemental abundances in the accretion disc. Temporal studies provide evidence that spectral variability is a result of changes in both the amount of reflection seen and the properties of the primary X-ray source itself.  相似文献   

14.
We present XMM-Newton European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) observations of the bright Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG–6-30-15, focusing on the broad Fe K α line at ∼6 keV and the associated reflection continuum, which is believed to originate from the inner accretion disc. We find these reflection features to be extremely broad and redshifted, indicating an origin in the very central regions of the accretion disc. It seems likely that we have caught this source in the 'deep minimum' state first observed by Iwasawa et al. The implied central concentration of X-ray illumination is difficult to understand in any pure accretion disc model. We suggest that we are witnessing the extraction and dissipation of rotational energy from a spinning black hole by magnetic fields connecting the black hole or plunging region to the disc.  相似文献   

15.
In this paper, we explore the gravitomagnetic interaction of a black hole (BH) with a misaligned accretion disc to study BH spin precession and alignment jointly with BH mass M BH and spin parameter a evolution, under the assumption that the disc is continually fed, in its outer region, by matter with angular momentum fixed on a given direction     . We develop an iterative scheme based on the adiabatic approximation to study the BH–disc co-evolution: in this approach, the accretion disc transits through a sequence of quasi-steady warped states (Bardeen–Petterson effect) and interacts with the BH until the spin   J BH  aligns with     . For a BH aligning with a corotating disc, the fractional increase in mass is typically less than a few per cent, while the spin modulus can increase up to a few tens of per cent. The alignment time-scale     is of  ∼105–106 yr  for a maximally rotating BH accreting at the Eddington rate. BH–disc alignment from an initially counter-rotating disc tends to be more efficient compared to the specular corotating case due to the asymmetry seeded in the Kerr metric: counter-rotating matter carries a larger and opposite angular momentum when crossing the innermost stable orbit, so that the spin modulus decreases faster and so the relative inclination angle.  相似文献   

16.
We have undertaken an extensive study of X-ray data from the accreting millisecond pulsar XTE J1751 − 305 observed by RXTE and XMM–Newton during its 2002 outburst. In all aspects this source is similar to the prototypical millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4 − 3658, except for the higher peak luminosity of 13 per cent of Eddington, and the optical depth of the hard X-ray source, which is larger by a factor ∼2. Its broad-band X-ray spectrum can be modelled by three components. We interpret the two soft components as thermal emission from a colder  ( kT ∼ 0.6 keV)  accretion disc and a hotter (∼1 keV) spot on the neutron star surface. We interpret the hard component as thermal Comptonization in plasma of temperature ∼40 keV and optical depth ∼1.5 in a slab geometry. The plasma is heated by the accretion shock as the material collimated by the magnetic field impacts on to the surface. The seed photons for Comptonization are provided by the hotspot, not by the disc. The Compton reflection is weak and the disc is probably truncated into an optically thin flow above the magnetospheric radius. Rotation of the emission region with the star creates an almost sinusoidal pulse profile with an rms amplitude of 3.3 per cent. The energy-dependent soft phase lags can be modelled by two pulsating components shifted in phase, which is naturally explained by a different character of emission of the optically thick spot and optically thin shock combined with the action of the Doppler boosting. The observed variability amplitude constrains the hotspot to lie within 3°–4° of the rotational pole. We estimate the inner radius of the optically thick accreting disc to be about 40 km. In that case, the absence of emission from the antipodal spot, which can be blocked by the accretion disc, gives the inclination of the system as ≳70°.  相似文献   

17.
The X-ray-bright Seyfert 1 galaxy III Zw 2 was observed with XMM–Newton in 2000 July. Its X-ray spectrum can be described by a power law of photon index Γ= 1.7 and an extremely broad (FWHM∼ 140 000 km  s−1  ) Fe Kα line at 6.44 keV. The iron line has an equivalent width of ∼800 eV. To study the long-term X-ray behaviour of the source we have analysed 25 yr of data, from 1975 to 2000. There is no evidence of significant intrinsic absorption within the source or of a soft X-ray excess in the XMM or archival data. We do not detect rapid X-ray variability (a few  × 103 s  ) during any of the individual observations; however, on longer time-scales (a few years) the X-ray light curve shows 10-fold flux variations. We infer a black hole mass of  ∼109 M⊙  (from Hβ FWHM) for III Zw 2 which is much higher than some previous estimates.
A comparison of X-ray variability with light curves at other wavelengths over a 25-yr period reveals correlated flux variations from radio to X-ray wavelengths. We interpret the variable radio to optical emission as synchrotron radiation, self-absorbed in the radio/millimetre region, and the X-rays mainly as a result of Compton up-scattering of low-energy photons by the population of high-energy electrons that give rise to the synchrotron radiation.  相似文献   

18.
The broad X-ray iron line, detected in many active galactic nuclei, is likely to be produced by fluorescence from the X-ray-illuminated central parts of an accretion disc close to a supermassive black hole. The time-averaged shape of the line can be explained most naturally by a combination of special and general relativistic effects. Such line profiles contain information about the black hole spin and the accretion disc, as well as the geometry of the emitting region, and may help to test general relativity in the strong gravity regime. In this paper we embark on the computation of the temporal response of the line to the illuminating flux. Previous studies concentrated on the calculation of reverberation signatures from static sources illuminating the disc. In this paper we focus on the more physically justified case of flares located above the accretion disc and corotating with it. We compute the time-dependent iron line, taking into account all general relativistic effects, and show that its shape is of a very complex nature, and we also present light curves accompanying the iron line variability. We suggest that present and future X-ray satellites like XMM or Constellation-X may be capable of detecting features present in the computed reverberation maps.  相似文献   

19.
Strong magnetic fields modify particle motion in the curved space–time of spinning black holes and change the stability conditions of circular orbits. We study conditions for magnetocentrifugal jet launching from accretion discs around black holes, whereby large-scale black hole lines anchored in the disc may fling tenuous coronal gas outwards. For a Schwarzschild black hole, magnetocentrifugal launching requires that the poloidal component of magnetic fields makes an angle less than  60°  to the outward direction at the disc surface, similar to the Newtonian case. For prograde rotating discs around Kerr black holes, this angle increases and becomes  90°  for footpoints anchored to the disc near the horizon of a critically spinning   a = M   black hole. Thus, a disc around a critically spinning black hole may centrifugally launch a jet even along the rotation axis.  相似文献   

20.
We present the analysis of optical and X‐ray XMM‐Newton data of the source 4U 1344‐60. On the basis of the optical data we propose to classify 4U 1344‐60 as a Seyfert 1.5 galaxy and we measured a redshift value z = 0.012 ± 0.001. The observed X‐ray spectrum is complex. The continuum emission can be described as a power law obscured by two neutral absorption components. 4U 1344‐60 exhibits a broad and skewed iron line at 6.4 keV most likely originated in a few gravitational radius of an accretion disc. The analysis also reveals the presence of two narrow emission line‐like features at ∼4.9 keV and ∼5.3 keV. Assuming that hot spots on the surface of the accretion disc, orbiting very close to the black hole is responsible of these emission lines, the accretion disc would present an inclination of 20° and the active regions would be located in the 6–10 R g radius range. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)  相似文献   

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