Accretion and emission close to supermassive black holes in quasars and AGN

Abstract

With the last generation of X-ray satellites, such as XMM-Newton and Chandra, our knowledge about the X-ray properties of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) has greatly improved. Detailed spectroscopy and long-term observations of hundreds of kilo-seconds have provided new insights into the mechanisms of X-ray production, its modification by intervening matter, and X-ray variability. In this thesis I present radiative transfer modeling of AGN in the Far-UV and X-ray range. The modeling considers several aspects of the observed X-ray properties: the Compton reflection/reprocessed component, X-ray variability and flares, and the effects of the warm absorber. For the X-ray reprocessing, I investigate in detail the magnetic flare model assuming solar-like magnetic reconnections above the accretion disk