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Reflection spectra of accretion disks illuminated by disk-like coronae

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abstract

Relativistic reflection features in the X-ray spectra of black hole binaries and AGNs are thought to be produced through illumination of a cold accretion disk by a hot corona. In this work, we assume that the corona has the shape of an infinitesimally thin disk with its central axis the same as the rotational axis of the black hole. The corona can either be static or corotate with the accretion disk. We calculate the disk's emissivity profiles and iron line shapes for a set of coronal radii and heights. We incorporate these emissivity profiles into RELXILL_NK and we simulate some observations of a black hole binary with NuSTAR to study the impact of a disk-like coronal geometry on the measurement of the properties of the system and, in particular, on the possibility of testing the Kerr nature of the source. We find that, in general, the astrophysical properties of the accretion disk are recovered well even if we fit the data with a model employing a broken power-law or a lamppost emissivity profile, while it is more challenging to constrain the geometric properties of the black hole spacetime.

fields

astro-ph.HE 1

years

2025 1

verdicts

CONDITIONAL 1

representative citing papers

The population of NuSTAR Black Hole X-ray Binaries

astro-ph.HE · 2025-06-13 · conditional · novelty 5.0

The observed spins of black holes in X-ray binaries are almost all high and can be described by a beta distribution with alpha=5.66 and beta=1.09, with spin precision improving for more massive, closer, and more inclined systems.

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  • The population of NuSTAR Black Hole X-ray Binaries astro-ph.HE · 2025-06-13 · conditional · none · ref 80 · internal anchor

    The observed spins of black holes in X-ray binaries are almost all high and can be described by a beta distribution with alpha=5.66 and beta=1.09, with spin precision improving for more massive, closer, and more inclined systems.