1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910254609303321

Autore

Noda Hirofumi

Titolo

X-ray Studies of the Central Engine in Active Galactic Nuclei with Suzaku / / by Hirofumi Noda

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Singapore : , : Springer Singapore : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2016

ISBN

981-287-721-5

Edizione

[1st ed. 2016.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (164 p.)

Collana

Springer Theses, Recognizing Outstanding Ph.D. Research, , 2190-5053

Disciplina

523.112

Soggetti

Observations, Astronomical

Astronomy - Observations

Physical measurements

Measurement   

Astronomy, Observations and Techniques

Measurement Science and Instrumentation

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

"Doctoral thesis accepted by the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan."

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters.

Nota di contenuto

Review -- Instrumentation -- Observation and Data Reduction -- Soft X-ray Analysis -- Hard X-ray Analysis -- Discussion and Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

The aim of this research was to use the X-ray satellite Suzaku to establish a picture of a central engine that effectively converts the gravitational energy of accreting matter onto the supermassive black hole to a huge amount of radiation in an active galactic nucleus. Although the engine is known to consist of a Comptonizing corona and an accretion disk, its image has remained unclear because primary emissions, coming directly from the engine, cannot be identified in X-ray spectra without models. The book describes a technique of time variability assisted spectral decomposition to model-independently examine X-ray signals, and how this was applied to the Suzaku archive data of active galactic nuclei. As a result, at least three distinct primary X-ray components have been discovered in an X-ray from an active galactic nucleus, presumably indicating a novel picture that the engine is composed of multiple coronae with different physical properties in an accretion flow. Furthermore, the determination of the spectral



shapes of the primary X-rays has a significant impact on estimations of black hole spins, because it is essential to quantify reprocessed X-ray spectra. The successful model-independent decomposition of X-ray spectral components with flux variations of active galactic nuclei is likely to be effective in future data analyses from the soon-to-be-launched Japanese X-ray satellite ASTRO-H, which is capable of achieving unprecedented fine spectros copy and broad energy band coverage.