1999/12/10 by Tiziana Di Matteo, Di Matteo, Tiziana
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #High-pressure geophysics and materials #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9912221
10 pages, to appear in the proceedings of the Bologna conference on "X-ray Astronomy 1999: Stellar Endpoints, AGN, and the Diffuse X-ray Background" (Astroph. Lett. and Comm.)
arxiv created 1999/12/10 · openalex publication_date 1999/12/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Popular models for the formation of X-ray spectra in AGN assume that a large fraction of the disk's angular momentum dissipation takes place in a hot corona that carries a small amount of the accreting mass. Here I discuss the formation of a magnetically-structured accretion disk corona, generated by buoyancy instability in the disk and the heating of localized flare regions up to the canonical X-ray emitting temperatures. I also examine the analogy between accreting disk-coronae and ADAFs and discuss the relevant emission mechanism in these two accretion models and how observational constraints can allow us to discriminate between them.