Impact of the reflection model on the estimate of the properties of accreting black holes

Understand

Relativistic reflection features in the X-ray spectra of black hole binaries and AGNs originate from illumination of the inner part of the accretion disk by a hot corona.

• In the presence of high quality data and with the correct astrophysical model, X-ray reflection spectroscopy can be quite a powerful tool to probe the strong gravity region, study the morphology of the accreting matter, measure black hole spins, and even test Einstein's theory of general relativity in the strong field regime.
• There are a few relativistic reflection models available today and developed by different groups.
• All these models present some differences and have a number of simplifications introducing systematic uncertainties.