The iron Kα Compton shoulder in transmitted and reflected spectra

Abstract

We calculate the equivalent width of the core, and the centroid energy and relative flux of the first-order Compton shoulder of the iron Kα emission line from neutral matter. The calculations are performed with Monte Carlo simulations. We explore a large range of column densities for both transmitted and reflected spectra, and study the dependence on the iron abundance. The Compton shoulder is now becoming observable in many objects thanks to the improved sensitivity and/or energy resolution of the XMM–Newton and Chandra satellites, and the present work aims to provide a tool to derive information on the geometry and element abundances of the line-emitting matter from Compton shoulder measurements.