The AGN Engine
The AGN Engine
Schematic of the innermost regions of a
Seyfert galaxy consisting of a
supermassive black hole surrounded by an accretion disk and molecular
torus. The upper panel shows the iron Kalpha line which is produced in the
innermost regions of the accretion disk, and its profile is distorted by
extreme gravitational and kinematic effects. Determination of the profile
using HTXS allows us to probe the immediate environment of the black hole.
The lower panel shows a broad-band perspective. When the system is viewed
face on (ie a Seyfert-1), ionized gas along the line-of-sight imprints
absorption edges & emission lines on the intrinsic powerlaw continuum. The
effects of such "warm absorbers" are only visible in the X-ray band, and
the spectroscopic capabilities of HTXS will provide the detailed kinematic
and plasma diagnostics necessary to determine its relationship to the
accretion process. A hard tail is produced by Compton "reflection" of the
intrinsic continuum within the disk & torus. The high sensitivity of HTXS,
extending to high energies, provides an independent measure of the geometry
and composition of these regions.
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