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Register a new userSoft X-Ray Absorption by Fe$^{0+}$ to Fe$^{15+}$ in Active Galactic Nuclei
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Authors
Ehud Behar
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A full set of calculations is presented for inner-shell n = 2 to 3 photoexcitation of the 16 iron charge states: Fe I through Fe XVI. The blend of the numerous absorption lines arising from these excitations (mainly 2p - 3d) forms an unresolved transition array (UTA), which has been recently identified as a prominent feature between 16 - 17 AA in the soft X-ray spectra of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Despite the blending within charge-states, the ample separation between the individual-ion features enables precise diagnostics of the ionization range in the absorbing medium. Column density and turbulent velocity diagnostics are also possible, albeit to a lesser accuracy. An abbreviated set of atomic parameters useful for modeling the Fe 2p - 3d UTA is given. It is shown that the effects of accompanying photoexcitation to higher levels ($n ge$ 4), as well as the associated photoionization edges, may also be relevant to AGN spectra.
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We review some of the main physical and statistical properties of the X-ray absorber in AGNs. In particular, we review the distribution of the absorbing column density inferred from X-ray observations of various AGN samples. We discuss the location of the X-ray absorber and the relation with the dust absorption at optical and infrared wavelengths. Finally, we shortly review the recent findings on X-ray absorption at high luminosities and at high redshift.
X-rays illuminating the accretion disc in active galactic nuclei give rise to an iron K line and its associated reflection spectrum which are lagged behind the continuum variability by the light-travel time from the source to the disc. The measured lag timescales in the iron band can be as short as $sim R_g/c$, where $R_g$ is the gravitational radius, which is often interpreted as evidence for a very small continuum source close to the event horizon of a rapidly spinning black hole. However, the short lags can also be produced by reflection from more distant material, because the primary photons with no time-delay dilute the time-lags caused by the reprocessed photons. We perform a Monte-Carlo simulation to calculate the dilution effect in the X-ray reverberation lags from a half-shell of neutral material placed at $100,R_g$ from the central source. This gives lags of $sim2,R_g/c$, but the iron line is a distinctly narrow feature in the lag-energy plot, whereas the data often show a broader line. We show that both the short lag and the line broadening can be reproduced if the scattering material is outflowing at $sim0.1c$. The velocity structure in the wind can also give shifts in the line profile in the lag-energy plot calculated at different frequencies. Hence we propose that the observed broad iron reverberation lags and shifts in profile as a function of frequency of variability can arise from a disc wind at fairly large distances from the X-ray source.
We used a large, homogeneous sample of 4178 z <= 0.8 Seyfert 1 galaxies and QSOs selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to investigate the strength of Fe II emission and its correlation with other emission lines and physical parameters of active galactic nuclei. We find that the strongest correlations of almost all the emission-line intensity ratios and equivalent widths (EWs) are with the Eddington ratio (L/L_{Edd}), rather than with the continuum luminosity at 5100AA (L_{5100}) or black hole mass (M_{BH}); the only exception is the EW of ultraviolet Fe II emission, which does not correlate at all with broad-line width, L_{5100}, M_{BH}, or L/L_{Edd}. By contrast, the intensity ratios of both the ultraviolet and optical Fe II emission to Mg II lambda 2800 correlate quite strongly with L/L_{Edd}. Interestingly, among all the emission lines in the near-UV and optical, the EW of narrow optical Fe II emission has the strongest correlation with L/L_{Edd}. We suggest that the variation of the emission-line strength in active galaxies is regulated by L/L_{Edd} because it governs the global distribution of the column density of the clouds gravitationally bound in the line-emitting region, as well as its overall gas supply. The systematic dependence on L/L_{Edd} must be corrected when using the FeII/MgII intensity ratio as a measure of the Fe/Mg abundance ratio to study the history of chemical evolution in QSO environments.
The majority of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) observed by XMM-Newton reveal narrow Fe K-alpha lines at ~ 6.4 keV, due to emission from cold (neutral) material. There is an X-ray Baldwin effect in Type I AGN, in that the equivalent width of the line decreases with increasing luminosity, with weighted linear regression giving EW ~ L^{-0.17+/-0.08} (Spearman Rank probability of > 99.9%). With current instrumental capabilities it is not possible to determine the precise origin for the narrow line, with both the Broad Line Region and putative molecular torus being possibilities. A possible explanation for the X-ray Baldwin effect is a decrease in covering factor of the material forming the fluorescence line.
We propose a novel theoretical model to describe a physical identity of the soft X-ray excess, ubiquitously detected in many Seyfert galaxies, by considering a steady-state, axisymmetric plasma accretion within the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) around a black hole (BH) accretion disk. We extend our earlier theoretical investigations on general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) accretion which has implied that the accreting plasma can develop into a standing shock for suitable physical conditions causing the downstream flow to be sufficiently hot due to shock compression. We numerically calculate to examine, for sets of fiducial plasma parameters, a physical nature of fast MHD shocks under strong gravity for different BH spins. We show that thermal seed photons from the standard accretion disk can be effectively Compton up-scattered by the energized sub-relativistic electrons in the hot downstream plasma to produce the soft excess feature in X-rays. As a case study, we construct a three-parameter Comptonization model of inclination angle $theta_{rm obs}$, disk photon temperature $kT_{rm in}$ and downstream electron energy $kT_e$ to calculate the predicted spectra in comparison with a 60 ks {it XMM-Newton}/EPIC-pn spectrum of a typical radio-quiet Seyfert 1 AGN, Ark~120. Our $chi^2$-analyses demonstrate that the model is plausible in successfully describing data for both non-spinning and spinning BHs with the derived range of $61.3~{rm keV} lesssim kT_e lesssim 144.3~{rm keV}$, $21.6~{rm eV} lesssim kT_{rm in} lesssim 34.0~{rm eV}$ and $17.5degr lesssim theta_{rm obs} lesssim 42.6degr$ indicating a compact Comptonizing region of $3-4$ gravitational radii that resembles the putative X-ray coronae.
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