We have performed a detailed analysis of the XMM–Newton observation of IGR J16318-4848 , to study the properties of the matter responsible for the obscuration and for the emission of Fe and Ni lines .
Even if the line of sight material has a column density of about 2 \times 10 ^ { 24 } cm ^ { -2 } , from the Fe K \alpha line EW and Compton Shoulder we argue that the matter should have an average column density of a few \times 10 ^ { 23 } cm ^ { -2 } , along with a covering factor of about 0.1–0.2 .
The iron K \alpha line varies on time scales as short as 1000 s , implying a size of the emitting region smaller than about 3 \times 10 ^ { 13 } cm .
The flux of the line roughly follows the variations of the continuum , but not exactly , suggesting a variation of the geometrical properties of the emitting region on similar time scales .