Improved Model of X-Ray Emission from Hot Accretion Flows

Abstract

Abstract We have developed an improved model of X-ray emission from optically thin, two-temperature accretion flows, kerrflow, using an exact Monte Carlo treatment of global Comptonization as well as with a fully general relativistic description of both the radiative and hydrodynamic processes. It also includes pion-decay electrons, whose synchrotron emission dominates the seed photon yield at M ̇ / M ̇ Edd ≳ 0.1 in flows around supermassive black holes. We consider in detail the dependence of the model spectra on the black hole spin, the electron heating efficiency, the plasma magnetization, and the accretion rate, and we discuss the feasibility of constraining these parameters by analyzing X-ray spectra of nearby low-luminosity active galactic nuclei. We note some degeneracies that hinder precise estimations of these parameters when individual X-ray spectra are analyzed. These degeneracies are eliminated when several spectra from a given source are fitted jointly, which then allows us to reliably measure the model parameters. We find significant differences with previous spectral models of hot-flow emission, related with the computational methods for Comptonization. Finally, we briefly consider and discuss the dependence on the viscosity parameter and on the outflow strength.