Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan · 1997 · 146 citations · 0 references
Natural SciencesAstronomyPhysicsAstrophysicsObservational AstronomyX-ray AstronomyAccretion DisksAccretion PhysicsAccretion ProcessesBlack HolesGalactic DiskGalactic NucleiAccretion Disk EmissionAccretion Disk PhysicsAccretion Disk SpectraDisk Accretion ProcessesGalactic Nuclei Accretion DisksLine Emission SpectraUnified Model Of Active Galactic NucleiX-ray Line Emission
Recent X-ray observations of active galactic nuclei with ASCA suggest that we may be observing Fe-K line emission from very close to the central black-black hole. We provide here the relevant formalism to interpret those observations. We show how to model the appearance of an accretion disk around a rotating black hole and line profiles from disk emission. We try to present in a coherent way results that are scattered in the litterature and/or that are limited to particular cases. We extend these results to the more general case of a rotating black hole (Kerr metric). We finally discuss the relation of the full width at zero intensity of the line to the angular momentum of the black hole.