Probing the Black Hole Engine with Measurements of the Relativistic X-ray Reflection Component

Abstract

Over the last decades X-ray spectroscopy has proven to be a powerful tool for the estimation of black hole spin and several other key parameters in dozens of AGN and black hole X-ray binaries. In this White Paper, we discuss the observational and theoretical challenges expected in the exploration, discovery, and study of astrophysical black holes in the next decade. We focus on the case of accreting black holes and their electromagnetic signatures, with particular emphasis on the measurement of the relativistic reflection component in their X-ray spectra.

Astro 2020 Decadal science White Paper

References in corpus (11)

• The corona contracts in a black-hole transient
• Relativistic iron emission lines in neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries as probes of neutron star radii
• The Origin of Black Hole Spin in Galactic Low-Mass X-ray Binaries
• X-ray reflection in accreting stellar-mass black hole systems
• The Comptonisation of accretion disc X-ray emission: Consequences for X-ray reflection and the geometry of AGN coronae
• Self-Consistent Black Hole Accretion Spectral Models and the Forgotten Role of Coronal Comptonization of Reflection Emission
• Multi-timescale X-ray reverberation mapping of accreting black holes
• Reflection From the Strong Gravity Regime in a z=0.658 Gravitationally Lensed-Quasar
• A Rapidly Spinning Black Hole Powers the Einstein Cross
• Steep X-ray reflection emissivity profiles in AGN as the result of radially-structured disc ionisation
• KYNREFREV - implementation of an X-ray reverberation model in XSPEC