Does the Iron K$_α$ Line of Active Galactic Nuclei Arise from the Cerenkov Line-like Radiation?

Details Does the Iron K$_α$ Line of Active Galactic Nuclei Arise from the Cerenkov Line-like Radiation? Does the Iron K$_α$ Line of Active Galactic Nuclei Arise from the Cerenkov Line-like Radiation?

2003-09-23

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0309604v1

Astrophys.J.599:164-172,2003

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

22 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. ApJ in press (December)

Scientific paper

10.1086/379189

When thermal relativistic electrons with isotropic distribution of velocities move in a gas region, or impinge upon the surface of a cloud that consists of a dense gas or doped dusts, the Cerenkov effect produces peculiar atomic or ionic emission lines -- the Cerenkov line-like radiation. This newly recognized emission mechanism may find wide applications in high-energy astrophysics. In this paper, we tentatively adopt this new line emission mechanism to discuss the origin of iron K$_{\alpha}$ feature of AGNs. Motivation of this research is to attempt a solution to a problem encountered by the ``disk-fluorescence line'' model, i.e. the lack of temporal response of the observed iron K$_{\alpha}$ line flux to the changes of the X-ray continuum flux. If the Cerenkov line emission is indeed responsible significantly for the iron K$_{\alpha}$ feature, the conventional scenario around the central supermassive black holes of AGNs would need to be modified to accommodate more energetic, more violent and much denser environments than previously thought.

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