Open AccessReflection at large distance from the central engine in Seyferts
Author(s) -
Malzac Julien,
Petrucci PierreOlivier
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05851.x
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , reflection (computer programming) , amplitude , luminosity , torus , flux (metallurgy) , primary (astronomy) , galaxy , active galactic nucleus , spectral line , reflector (photography) , optics , astronomy , geometry , light source , mathematics , materials science , computer science , metallurgy , programming language
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 influences the spectral fit 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 Comptonized luminosity may account for the reported correlation between the reflection amplitude R and the spectral index Γ, and simultaneously produces an iron line EW that is nearly independent of Γ. We emphasize the effects of the modelling of the primary component on the determination of the reflection amplitude, and show that in NGC 5548, when these effects are taken into account, the RXTE data are consistent with the reflection features being produced mainly at large distance from the central source.