ON THE SIZE AND LOCATION OF THE X-RAY EMITTING CORONAE AROUND BLACK HOLES

The observation of energetic X-ray emission from black holes, inconsistent with thermal emission from an accretion disk, has long indicated the presence of a ''corona'' around these objects. However, our knowledge of the geometry, composition, and processes within black hole coronae is severely lacking. Basic questions regarding their size and location are still a topic of debate. In this Letter, we show that for black holes with luminosities L ∼> 10–2 LEdd—characteristic of many Seyferts, quasars, and stellar-mass black holes (in their brighter states)—advanced imaging and timing data strongly favor X-ray emitting regions that are highly compact, and only a few Gravitational radii above the accretion disk. The inclusion of a large number of possible systematics uncertainties does not significantly change this conclusion with our results still suggesting emission from within ∼20rg in all cases. This result favors coronal models wherein most of the hard X-ray emission derives from magnetic reconnection in the innermost disk and/or from processes in the compact base of a central, relativistic jet.