The effect of a hot, spherical scattering cloud on quasi-periodic oscillation behavior

A Monte Carlo technique is used to investigate the effects of a hot electron scattering cloud surrounding a time-dependent X-ray source. Results are presented for the time-averaged emergent energy spectra and the mean residence time in the cloud as a function of energy. Moreover, after Fourier transforming the scattering Green's function, it is shown how the cloud affects both the observed power spectrum of a time-dependent source and the cross spectrum (Fourier transform of a cross correlation between energy bands). It is found that the power spectra intrinsic to the source are related to those observed by a relatively simple frequency-dependent multiplicative factor (a transmission function). The cloud can severely attenuate high frequencies in the power spectra, depending on optical depth, and, at lower frequencies, the transmission function has roughly a Lorentzian shape. It is also found that if the intrinsic energy spectrum is constant in time, the phase of the cross spectrum is determined entirely by scattering. Finally, the implications of the results for studies of the X-ray quasi-periodic oscillators are discussed.