Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1997-12-17
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
4 pages, 3 figures, Tex file, using AIP Proceedings macro, submitted to Proceedings of the 8th Annual October Astrophysics Con
Scientific paper
10.1063/1.55881
The Fourier frequency dependent hard X-ray lag, first discovered from the analysis of aperiodic variability of the light curves of the black hole candidate Cygnus X-1, turns out to be a property shared by several other accreting compact sources. We show that the lag can be explained in terms of Comptonization process in coronae of hot electrons with inhomogeneous density distributions. The density profile of a corona, like the optical depth and electron temperature, can significantly affect the Comptonization energy spectrum from it. This means, by fitting the energy spectrum alone, it is not possible to uniquely determine the optical depth and temperature of the Comptonization cloud if its density profile is unknown. The hard X-ray time lag is sensitive to the density distribution of the scattering corona. Thus simultaneous analysis of the spectral and temporal X-ray data will allow us to probe the density structure of the Comptonizing corona and thereby the dynamics of mass accretion onto the compact object.
Cui Wei-Wei
Hua Xin-Min
Kazanas Demosthenes
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