RXTorusHR

A dusty torus, computed at higher spectral resolution than the original RXTorus models.

RXTorusHR is a new version of the RXTorus and RXTorusD table models, first released with the RefleX code by Paltani & Ricci (2017) and extended to dusty media by Ricci & Paltani (2023). It describes the reprocessing of the primary X-ray continuum by a dusty torus, recomputed at higher spectral resolution than those original tables — 20 eV, refined to 4 eV across the Fe Kα, Fe Kβ and Ni Kα complexes — over a denser parameter grid and with the high-energy cutoff left free.

Schematic of the RXTorusHR geometry: a central black hole with a spherical corona above and below the disk plane, surrounded by a dusty torus of tube radius r at distance R, with the inner edge at the sublimation radius and the viewing angle θ marked. — Geometry of the RXTorusHR model: a dusty torus, with the covering factor set by TorusCF = r / R. Schematic drawn from the model configuration.

Downloads

Component	Description	File	Size
ALL	All photons (continuum + reprocessed)	rxtorus_all_hd.mod.gz	860.5 MB
RPRC	All reprocessed photons	rxtorus_rpr_hd.mod.gz	434.1 MB
SCAT	Scattered photons only (no fluorescence)	rxtorus_sct_hd.mod.gz	414.8 MB
FLUO	Fluorescent photons only	rxtorus_flo_hd.mod.gz	91.6 MB
CNT	Transmitted continuum	rxtorus_cnt_hd.mod.gz	829.9 MB

How the models are computed

Geometry	A dusty torus surrounding the central X-ray source
Input continuum	Cutoff power-law, with both the photon index and the cutoff energy free
Energy range	0.3 – 300 keV
Spectral resolution	20 eV below 10 keV, with 4 eV retained across the Fe Kα, Fe Kβ and Ni Kα windows; 0.01 dex logarithmic binning from 10 to 300 keV
Composition	Lodders et al. (2009) abundances, solar metallicity, dust included, H₂ fraction 0.3
Physical processes	Rayleigh scattering, Compton scattering on bound electrons, dust grain interactions
Simulation grid	8,000 RefleX runs of 2 × 10⁹ photons each, sampled in 45 inclination bins — 360,000 spectra per component

Spectral components

5 spectral components are provided, based on the interaction history of the photons.

`all` ALL	All photons (continuum + reprocessed)
`rpr` RPRC	All reprocessed photons
`sct` SCAT	Scattered photons only; no fluorescence emission
`flo` FLUO	Fluorescence emission (including subsequent scattering)
`cnt` CNT	Transmitted continuum (no interaction with the medium)

ALL = CNT + RPRC and RPRC = SCAT + FLUO

Parameters

All spectral components of RXTorusHR share the same free parameters.

Parameter	Range	Description
`Ecut`	50 – 350 keV	High-energy cutoff of the input continuum; 5 logarithmically spaced values (50, 81.3, 132.3, 215.2, 350 keV), logarithmic interpolation
`Pho_index`	1.2 – 3.0	Photon index Γ of the input cutoff power-law continuum; 10 values in steps of 0.2
`TorusNH`	log 22.0 – 25.5	Equatorial hydrogen column density of the torus; 16 values, in steps of 0.3 dex up to 23.2 and 0.2 dex from 23.5 upwards
`TorusCF`	0.01 – 0.999	Covering factor of the torus, TorusCF = r / R; 10 logarithmically spaced values, logarithmic interpolation
`Obs_angle`	1 – 89 deg	Viewing angle θ of the system (1 = face-on, 89 = edge-on); 45 bin centres, every 2°
`Redshift`	free	Redshift of the source
`norm`	free	Photon flux of the input continuum at 1 keV (ph keV⁻¹ cm⁻² s⁻¹)

Usage in XSPEC

Load a downloaded table as a model component.

Typical usage with the ALL table

model tbabs * atable{rxtorus_all_hd.mod.gz}

Reprocessed component with additional soft emission and line components

model tbabs * (atable{rxtorus_rpr_hd.mod.gz} + apec + zgauss)

The tables can be loaded while still gzip-compressed, as shown above. XSPEC decompresses them into memory each time they are read, so if you fit repeatedly it is faster to decompress once with gunzip and point XSPEC at the resulting .mod file.

How to cite

If these models are useful in your work, please cite both the dataset and the paper describing the code they were computed with:

Dimopoulos, G. (2026). RXTorusHR: high-resolution X-ray table models for a dusty torus (Version v1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22699166

Paltani, S., & Ricci, C. 2017, A&A, 607, A31. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201629623

@dataset{dimopoulos_2026_22699166,
  author    = {Dimopoulos, Georgios},
  title     = {RXTorusHR: high-resolution X-ray table models for a dusty torus},
  month     = sep,
  year      = 2026,
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  version   = {v1},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.22699166},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22699166}
}

@ARTICLE{2017A&A...607A..31P,
       author = {{Paltani}, S. and {Ricci}, C.},
        title = "{RefleX: X-ray absorption and reflection in active galactic nuclei for arbitrary geometries}",
      journal = {\aap},
         year = 2017,
        month = nov,
       volume = {607},
          eid = {A31},
        pages = {A31},
          doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/201629623},
       adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017A&A...607A..31P},
      adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

The model files are archived on Zenodo under CC BY 4.0 — doi:10.5281/zenodo.22699165

References

Found a problem, or need a configuration that isn't here? Email me — I'm happy to help.