Accretion Disk Atmospheres
Mario Jimenez-Garate, MIT
The window on high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy opened by Chandra and
XMM-Newton is revealing the nature of the atmospheres and coronae of
accretion disks. Observations of X-ray binaries show that dense
photoionized plasmas blanket the disk. We compare accretion disk model
atmospheres with observed X-ray spectra in order to derive ionization and
density structure, opacity, spatial distribution, elemental composition,
energetics, thermal stability, and kinematics.