Fast Spectral Variability in the X-ray Emission of Accreting Black Holes

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxxiii

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2. Introduction

   • Chris Skipper

   Pages 1-25

3. AGN: Absorption, Spectral Classification and the Optical Emission Lines

   • Chris Skipper

   Pages 27-53

4. Very Fast X-ray Spectral Variability in Cygnus X-1

   • Chris Skipper

   Pages 55-80

5. The \(\dot{m}_\mathrm{E}\)–\(\Gamma \) Relationship in XRBs and AGN

   • Chris Skipper

   Pages 81-112

6. Conclusions

   • Chris Skipper

   Pages 113-118

7. Back Matter

   Pages 119-150

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This thesis brings together the various techniques of X-ray spectral analysis in order to examine the properties of black holes that vary in mass by several orders of magnitude. In all these systems it is widely accepted that the X-ray emission is produced by Compton up-scattering of lower energy seed photons in a hot corona or accretion flow, and here these processes are examined through a study of the X-ray spectral variability of each source. A new technique is introduced, in which models are fitted to over 2 million X-ray spectra on time-scales as short as 16 ms, and subsequently it is shown that the nature of the correlation between intensity and spectral index is strongly dependent upon the spectral state of the black hole. Finally, the results of an extensive survey of nearby galactic nuclei using the Chandra X-ray telescope are presented in the form of images and spectra, and these results are used along with data from the literature to search for Compton-thick nuclei.

• Active Galactic Nuclei
• Cygnus X-1
• Observational Features of Black Holes
• Spectral Variability of Accreting Black Holes
• X-ray Binaries

• Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

  Chris Skipper

Dr. Chris J. Skipper got his MSc from University of Southampton with First Class Honors and was awarded his PhD from Southampton in 2013, where he is now working as a SKA Research Fellow.

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