Compton Reflection in AGN with Simbol-X

V. Beckmann (1) , T. J.-L. Courvoisier (1) , N. Gehrels (2) , P. Lubiński (1) , J. Malzac (3) , P. O. Petrucci (4) , C. R. Shrader (2) , S. Soldi (1)

1 ISDC Data Centre for Astrophysics
2 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
3 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
4 LAOG - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble

AGN exhibit complex hard X-ray spectra. Our current understanding is that the emission is dominated by inverse Compton processes which take place in the corona above the accretion disk, and that absorption and reflection in a distant absorber play a major role. These processes can be directly observed through the shape of the continuum, the Compton reflection hump around 30 keV, and the iron fluorescence line at 6.4 keV. We demonstrate the capabilities of Simbol-X to constrain complex models for cases like MCG-05-23-016, NGC 4151, NGC 2110, and NGC 4051 in short (10 ksec) observations. We compare the simulations with recent observations on these sources by INTEGRAL, Swift and Suzaku. Constraining reflection models for AGN with Simbol-X will help us to get a clear view of the processes and geometry near to the central engine in AGN, and will give insight to which sources are responsible for the Cosmic X-ray background at energies >20 keV.

Mots clés: X-ray; Galactic nuclei; circumnuclear matter; and bulges; Neutrino; muon; pion; and other elementary particles; cosmic rays

Domaines: Phénomènes cosmiques de haute energie [astro-ph.HE]; Phénomènes cosmiques de haute energie [astro-ph.HE]

V. Beckmann, T. J.-L. Courvoisier, N. Gehrels, P. Lubiński, J. Malzac, et al.. Compton Reflection in AGN with Simbol-X. SIMBOL-X: FOCUSING ON THE HARD X-RAY UNIVERSE, Dec 2008, Paris Cedex 13, France. pp.141-144, ⟨10.1063/1.3149396⟩. ⟨hal-00728386⟩