X-ray plasma diagnostics for totally and partially photoionized plasmas such as Warm Absorber in AGN

Abstract

Thanks to the new generation of X-ray satellites such as Chandra and XMM, high resolution and high sensitivity spectra are available. In particular, for the first time, the three most intense lines (resonance, intercombination and forbidden) of low charged (low Z) He-like ions are splitted for non solar plasmas. We present density, ionizing process and temperature diagnostics, for totally and partially photoionized plasmas, based on ratios of these three lines. These powerful plasma diagnostics could be used for hot astrophysical plasmas such as AGN, starburst galaxies, X-ray binaries, etc. In particular, they could be applied to Warm Absorber often seen in Active Galactic Nuclei (Porquet & Dubau 2000), which is an important key tool to understand central region of different types of AGN (Seyfert 1 and 2, high and low redshift quasars).

arXiv commentTo appear in Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisca, Conference Series, (Eds) J. Franco, J. Arthur & N. Brickhouse (February 2000)

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