Ionized iron Kα lines in AGN X-ray spectra

Abstract

The Equivalent Widths (EW) of the He- and H-like iron lines produced in photoionized, circumnuclear matter of AGN are calculated with respect to both the reflected and the total continua. We found that the EWs with respect to the total continuum may be as large as a few tens of eV, making them observable in bright Seyfert 1s by instruments on board Chandra and XMM-Newton. We apply our calculations to the XMM-Newton spectrum of NGC 5506 and found a good agreement with the data at the expense of a modest iron overabundance.