The innermost extremes of black hole accretion
Abstract
The inner 20 gravitational radii around the black hole at the centre of luminous active galactic nuclei and stellar mass black hole binaries are now being routinely mapped by X-ray spectral-timing techniques. Spectral blurring and reverberation of the reflection spectrum are key tools in this work. In the most extreme AGN cases with high black hole spin, when the source appears in a low state, observations probe the region within 1 gravitational radius of the event horizon. The location, size, and operation of the corona which generates the power-law X-ray continuum is also being revealed.
- Publication:
-
Astronomische Nachrichten
- Pub Date:
- May 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1002/asna.201612316
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1511.08596
- Bibcode:
- 2016AN....337..375F
- Keywords:
-
- accretion;
- accretion disks;
- black hole physics;
- galaxies: active;
- galaxiea: nuclei;
- X-rays: binaries;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 6 pages. 12 figures, in press Astronomical Notes (Proc. XMM-Newton 2015 Science Workshop)