X-Ray Weak AGNs from Super-Eddington Accretion onto Infant Black Holes

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Madau, Piero, Haardt, Francesco
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Madau, Piero
Haardt, Francesco
author_facet Madau, Piero
Haardt, Francesco
contents A simple model for the X-ray weakness of JWST-selected broad-line AGNs is proposed under the assumption that the majority of these sources are fed at super-Eddington accretion rates. In these conditions, the hot inner corona above the geometrically thin disk that is responsible for the emission of X-rays in "normal" AGNs will be embedded instead in a funnel-like reflection geometry. The coronal plasma will Compton upscatter optical/UV photons from the underlying thick disk as well as the surrounding funnel walls, and the high soft-photon energy density will cool down the plasma to temperatures in the range 30-40 keV. The resulting X-ray spectra are predicted to be extremely soft, with power-law photon indices Gamma=2.8-4.0, making high-z super-Eddington AGNs largely undetectable by Chandra.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_00417
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle X-Ray Weak AGNs from Super-Eddington Accretion onto Infant Black Holes
Madau, Piero
Haardt, Francesco
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
A simple model for the X-ray weakness of JWST-selected broad-line AGNs is proposed under the assumption that the majority of these sources are fed at super-Eddington accretion rates. In these conditions, the hot inner corona above the geometrically thin disk that is responsible for the emission of X-rays in "normal" AGNs will be embedded instead in a funnel-like reflection geometry. The coronal plasma will Compton upscatter optical/UV photons from the underlying thick disk as well as the surrounding funnel walls, and the high soft-photon energy density will cool down the plasma to temperatures in the range 30-40 keV. The resulting X-ray spectra are predicted to be extremely soft, with power-law photon indices Gamma=2.8-4.0, making high-z super-Eddington AGNs largely undetectable by Chandra.
title X-Ray Weak AGNs from Super-Eddington Accretion onto Infant Black Holes
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.00417