A soft X-ray excess above the 2-10 keV power law extrapolation is generally observed in AGN X-ray spectra. The origin of this excess is still not well understood. Presently there are two competitive models: blurred ionized reflection and warm Comptonisation. In the case of warm Comptonisation, observations suggest a corona temperature in the range 0.1-2 keV and a corona optical depth ∼10-20. Moreover, radiative constraints from spectral fits with Comptonisation models suggest that most of the accretion power should be released in the warm corona and the disk below is basically non-dissipative, radiating only the reprocessed emission from the corona. The true radiative properties of such a warm and optically thick plasma are not well-known, however. For instance, the importance of the Comptonisation process, the potential presence of strong absorption/emission features or the spectral shape of the output spectrum have been studied only very recently. We present in this paper simulations of warm and optically thick coronae using the titan radiative transfer code coupled with the noar Monte-Carlo code, the latter fully accounting for Compton scattering of continuum and lines. Illumination from above by a hard X-ray emission and from below by an optically thick accretion disk is taken into account as well as (uniform) internal heating. Our simulations show that for a large part of the parameter space, the warm corona with sufficient internal mechanical heating is dominated by Compton cooling and neither strong absorption nor emission lines are present in the outgoing spectra. In a smaller part of the parameter space, the calculated emission agrees with the spectral shape of the observed soft X-ray excess. Remarkably, this also corresponds to the conditions of radiative equilibrium of an extended warm corona covering almost entirely a non-dissipative accretion disk. These results confirm the warm Comptonisation as a valuable model that can explain the origin of the soft X-ray excess.
Context. This paper is devoted to self-consistent modeling of the magnetically supported accretion disk with optically thick warm corona based on first principles. In our model, we consider the gas heating by magneto-rotational instability (MRI) dynamo. Aims. Our goal is to show that the proper calculation of the gas heating by magnetic dynamo can build up the warm, optically thick corona above the accretion disk around black hole of stellar mass.Methods. Using vertical model of the disk supported and heated by the magnetic field together with radiative transfer in hydrostatic and radiative equilibrium we developed relaxation numerical scheme which allows us to compute the transition form the disk to corona in a self consistent way. Results. We demonstrate here that the warm (up to 5 keV), optically thick (up to 10 τ es ), Compton cooled corona can form due to the magnetic heating. Such warm corona is stronger for higher accretion rate and larger magnetic field strength. The radial extent of the warm corona is limited by the occurrence of the local thermal instability, which purely depends on radiative processes. The obtained coronal parameters are in agreement with those constrained from X-ray observations. Conclusions. The warm magnetically supported corona is tends to appear in the inner disk regions. It may be responsible for Soft X-ray excess seen in accreting sources. For lower accretion rates and weaker magnetic field parameters, thermal instability prevents warm corona to exist, giving rise to eventual clumpiness or ionized outflow.
It is well known that not all solar flares are connected with eruptions followed by coronal mass ejection (CME). Even strongest X-class flares may not be accompanied by eruptions or are accompanied by failed eruptions. One of important factor that prevent eruption from developing into CME is strength of the magnetic field overlying flare site. Few observations show that active regions with specific magnetic configuration may produce many CME-less solar flares. Therefore, forecasts of geoeffective events based on active region properties have to take into account probability of confining solar eruptions. Present observations of SDO/AIA give a chance for deep statistical analysis of properties of an active region which may lead to confining an eruption. We developed automated method which can recognize eruptions in AIA images. With this tool we will be able to analyze statistical properties of failed eruptions observed by AIA telescope.
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