[50.05] Redshifted iron lines as spectral signatures of Compton-thick outflow near accreting (galactic and extragalactic) black holes: Self-consistent calculations of ionization and temperature structures and spectral formation in the outflow.

AAS 205th Meeting, 9-13 January 2005
Session 50 EXIST
Poster, Tuesday, January 11, 2005, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall

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[50.05] Redshifted iron lines as spectral signatures of Compton-thick outflow near accreting (galactic and extragalactic) black holes: Self-consistent calculations of ionization and temperature structures and spectral formation in the outflow.

L Titarchuk (George Mason University/ Naval Research Laboratory/GSFC), J.M. Laming (Naval Research Laboratory), Philippe Laurent (CEA/DSM/DAPNIA/SAp, CEA Saclay, France)

Observations with Chandra, XMM-Newton and ASCA have revealed red-skewed iron emission lines in stellar and supermassive black holes. Using Monte Carlo method we have simulated the propagation of monochromatic photons in a bulk outflow from a compact object (black hole or neutron star). We calculate the temperature and ionization balance in an outflow from an accreting black hole under illumination by hard radiation from the central object. Electron scattering of the photons within the expanding flow leads to a decrease of their energy which is of first orderd in v/c, when v is the outflow velocity (v is much less than the speed of light c). We find that the equivalent widths of red skewed Fe K-alpha originated in the wind is order of keV. We fit our model line profiles to the observations using four free parameters, outflow velocity, optical depth, electron temperature and the original line photon energy. We conclude that redshifted lines are intrinsic properties of the powerful outflows for which Thomson optical depth is more than one.

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