Issue |
EAS Publications Series
Volume 1, 2001
AGN in their cosmic environment
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Page(s) | 19 - 26 | |
Section | Section I: Multi-Spectral Emissions of AGN | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/eas:2001005 | |
Published online | 22 November 2011 |
B. Rocca-Volmerange, and H. Sol (eds)
EAS Publications Series, 1 (2001) 19–26
X-Ray Emitting-Absorbing Media in Seyfert 1 Galaxies
Seyfert galaxies have been shown to exhibit a large variety of features in their X-ray spectra from which the environment of the central engine can lie deduced. We focus on the two following aspects: the Warm Absorber, mainly responsible of the soft X-ray properties. and the reprocessing/reflecting plasma medium at the origin of the iron Kα fluorescent line. The physical parameters and the location of the so-called Warm Absorber (WA), a photoionized medium along the line of sight to the nuclear region, are more strongly constrained by optical coronal lines than by the oxygen edges observed in the soft X-rays and produced by the WA. The photoionization models atso predict the intensities of the X-ray (-mission lines which are going to be detected with the new generation of X-ray satellites. An alternative model to the relativistic accretion disc is proposed to explain the profile of the X-ray iron Kα line observed in the Seyfert 1. This line can be formed in the framework of a quasi-spherical accretion of optically thick clouds. An optically thick photoionization code coupled with a Monte-Carlo code has been developed to compute the entire spectrum from the IR to the hard X-rays for a dose geometry with a large covering factor. The multiple Compton reflections allow to reproduce the redshifted broad iron line as detected in several Seyfert 1 galaxies and in MCG-6-30-15.
© EAS, EDP Sciences 2002