The study of the circumnuclear environment of accreting supermassive black holes with realistic X-ray spectral models

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Dimopoulos, Georgios, Ricci, Claudio, Paltani, Stéphane
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Dimopoulos, Georgios
Ricci, Claudio
Paltani, Stéphane
author_facet Dimopoulos, Georgios
Ricci, Claudio
Paltani, Stéphane
contents X-ray spectral modeling is a powerful tool for studying the immediate environment of accreting objects, including supermassive black holes. Several models, either phenomenological or physically driven, have been developed over the past decade to study X-ray spectra, delivering important insights into the properties of circumnuclear material of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Despite the fact that these models are able to reproduce the data well, they often lack realistic geometries, and most of them consist of simplified configurations such as a slab or a torus. We use the ray-tracing code \textsc{RefleX} to generate new spectral models that cover a wide energy range in the X-ray band, adopting a realistic configuration for the surrounding material. We introduce two new table models that are publicly available: 1) the RXToPo model, which features an X-ray source along with a dusty torus and a polar hollow cone; 2) the RXagn1 model, which includes, besides the torus and polar cone, also the accretion disk and the broad line region. Both models were applied to the X-ray spectrum of NGC 424, demonstrating their potential to study sources whose X-ray emission is dominated by reprocessed radiation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_06794
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The study of the circumnuclear environment of accreting supermassive black holes with realistic X-ray spectral models
Dimopoulos, Georgios
Ricci, Claudio
Paltani, Stéphane
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
X-ray spectral modeling is a powerful tool for studying the immediate environment of accreting objects, including supermassive black holes. Several models, either phenomenological or physically driven, have been developed over the past decade to study X-ray spectra, delivering important insights into the properties of circumnuclear material of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Despite the fact that these models are able to reproduce the data well, they often lack realistic geometries, and most of them consist of simplified configurations such as a slab or a torus. We use the ray-tracing code \textsc{RefleX} to generate new spectral models that cover a wide energy range in the X-ray band, adopting a realistic configuration for the surrounding material. We introduce two new table models that are publicly available: 1) the RXToPo model, which features an X-ray source along with a dusty torus and a polar hollow cone; 2) the RXagn1 model, which includes, besides the torus and polar cone, also the accretion disk and the broad line region. Both models were applied to the X-ray spectrum of NGC 424, demonstrating their potential to study sources whose X-ray emission is dominated by reprocessed radiation.
title The study of the circumnuclear environment of accreting supermassive black holes with realistic X-ray spectral models
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.06794