Reflection at large distance from the central engine in seyferts

Sep, 2001
Published in:
  • Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 336 (2002) 1209
e-Print:

Citations per year

20032007201120152019210
Abstract: (arXiv)
We consider the possibility that most of the reflection component, observed in the hard X-ray spectra of Seyfert galaxies, could be formed on an extended medium, at large distance from the central source of primary radiation (e.g. on a torus). Then, the reflector cannot respond to the rapid fluctuations of the primary source. The observed reflected flux is controlled by the time-averaged primary spectrum rather than the instantaneous (observed) one. We show that this effect strongly influence the spectral fits parameters derived under the assumption of a reflection component consistent with the primary radiation. We find that a pivoting primary power-law spectrum with a nearly constant Comptonised luminosity may account for the reported correlation between the reflection amplitude RR and the spectral index Γ\Gamma.