ON ESTIMATING THE HIGH-ENERGY CUTOFF IN THE X-RAY SPECTRA OF BLACK HOLES VIA REFLECTION SPECTROSCOPY
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- Dr. Karl Remeis-Observatory and Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Sternwartstr. 7, D-96049 Bamberg (Germany)
The fundamental parameters describing the coronal spectrum of an accreting black hole are the slope Γ of the power-law continuum and the energy E{sub cut} at which it rolls over. Remarkably, this latter parameter can be accurately measured for values as high as 1 MeV by modeling the spectrum of X-rays reflected from a black hole accretion disk at energies below 100 keV. This is possible because the details in the reflection spectrum, rich in fluorescent lines and other atomic features, are very sensitive to the spectral shape of the hardest coronal radiation illuminating the disk. We show that by fitting simultaneous NuSTAR (3–79 keV) and low-energy (e.g., Suzaku) data with the most recent version of our reflection model relxill one can obtain reasonable constraints on E{sub cut} at energies from tens of keV up to 1 MeV, for a source as faint as 1 mCrab in a 100 ks observation.
- OSTI ID:
- 22518916
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 808, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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