Monte Carlo calculation of comptonization effects in spherical accretion onto black holes

Spherical accretion onto black holes at high accretion rates leads to temperatures and optical depths for which Comptonization of the emerging radiation plays an important role, altering both the plasma temperature and the emergent spectrum. In this paper the nonlocal effects of Comptonization are accounted for by numerically modeling the scattering process with Monte Carlo techniques. Calculations are performed for black hole masses ranging from 10¹–10⁹ M and are compared with the local scattering model of Ipser and Price (1983). It is found that the local scattering approximation underestimates the energy in the X-ray portion of the spectrum. Monte Carlo calculations shows that the spectrum flattens and the spectral index decreases to values about 20% below those obtained by using the local scattering approximation.