Iron line profiles in Suzaku spectra of bare Seyfert galaxies

Patrick, A. R.; Reeves, J. N.; Porquet, D.; Markowitz, A.; Lobban, A.; Terashima, Yuichi

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17852.x

Cited by 86 publications

(154 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Fairall 9 is a bright, nearby (z = 0.047016) Seyfert 1 galaxy that has been the subject of several studies that attempt, using X-ray spectroscopy, to obtain robust measurements of the angular momentum, or spin, of the putative supermassive central black hole (Schmoll et al 2009;Emmanoulopoulos et al 2011;Patrick et al 2011aPatrick et al , 2011bPatrick et al , 2013Lohfink et al 2012a;Walton et al 2013;Lohfink et al 2016). According to the "no hair" theorem, black holes have only three measurable physical attributes, one of these being spin (mass and charge being the other two).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

No signatures of black hole spin in the X-ray spectrum of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Fairall 9

Yaqoob

Turner

Tatum

et al. 2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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Fairall 9 is one of several type 1 active galactic nuclei for which it has been claimed that the angular momentum (or spin) of the supermassive black hole can be robustly measured, using the Fe Kα emission line and Compton-reflection continuum in the X-ray spectrum. The method rests upon the interpretation of the Fe Kα line profile and associated Compton-reflection continuum in terms of relativistic broadening in the strong gravity regime in the innermost regions of an accretion disc, within a few gravitational radii of the black hole. Here, we re-examine a Suzaku X-ray spectrum of Fairall 9 and show that a face-on toroidal X-ray reprocessor model involving only nonrelativistic and mundane physics provides an excellent fit to the data. The Fe Kα line emission and Compton reflection continuum are calculated self-consistently, the iron abundance is solar, and an equatorial column density of ∼ 10 24 cm −2 is inferred. In this scenario, neither the Fe Kα line, nor the Compton-reflection continuum provide any information on the black-hole spin. Whereas previous analyses have assumed an infinite column density for the distant-matter reprocessor, the shape of the reflection spectrum from matter with a finite column density eliminates the need for a relativistically broadened Fe Kα line. We find a 90 per cent confidence range in the Fe Kα line FWHM of 1895-6205 km s −1 , corresponding to a distance of ∼ 3100 to 33, 380 gravitational radii from the black hole, or 0.015-0.49 pc for a black-hole mass of ∼ 1 − 3 × 10 8 M ⊙ .

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

No signatures of black hole spin in the X-ray spectrum of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Fairall 9

Yaqoob

Turner

Tatum

et al. 2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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“…Using a sample of six bare Seyfert galaxies, Patrick et al (2011) modeled the Suzaku broad-band spectra with both ionized reflection and additional Compton scattering components. Combining the two models to reproduce the soft excess provided better fitting results with lower values of the spin and emissivity index.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A hard X-ray view of the soft excess in AGN

Boissay

Ricci

Paltani

2016

A&A

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An excess of X-ray emission below 1 keV, called soft excess, is detected in a large fraction of Seyfert 1-1.5s. The origin of this feature remains debated, as several models have been suggested to explain it, including warm Comptonization and blurred ionized reflection. In order to constrain the origin of this component, we exploit the different behaviors of these models above 10 keV. Ionized reflection covers a broad energy range, from the soft X-rays to the hard X-rays, while Comptonization drops very quickly in the soft X-rays. We present here the results of a study done on 102 Seyfert 1s (Sy 1.0, 1.2, 1.5 and NLSy1) from the Swift BAT 70-Month Hard X-ray Survey catalog. The joint spectral analysis of Swift/BAT and XMM-Newton data allows a hard X-ray view of the soft excess that is present in about 80% of the objects of our sample. We discuss how the soft-excess strength is linked to the reflection at high energy, to the photon index of the primary continuum and to the Eddington ratio. In particular, we find a positive dependence of the soft excess intensity on the Eddington ratio. We compare our results to simulations of blurred ionized-reflection models and show that they are in contradiction. By stacking both XMM-Newton and Swift/BAT spectra per soft-excess strength, we see that the shape of reflection at hard X-rays stays constant when the soft excess varies, showing an absence of link between reflection and soft excess. We conclude that the ionized-reflection model as the origin of the soft excess is disadvantaged in favor of the warm Comptonization model in our sample of Seyfert 1s.

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“…Different fits to the Kα line in MCG-6-30-15 gave a > 0.98 [167], a = 0.86±0.01 [165], and a = 0.49 +0. 20 −0.12 [164]. Even more problematic is the case of NGC 3783, for which different groups found a > 0.88 [168] and a < 0.32 [164].…”

Section: Spin Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…There is just a handful of objects with reliable spin measurements. Notable examples are Fairall 9, a = 0.60 ± 0.07 [163], and a = 0.67 +0.11 −0.10 [164]; 1H 0707-495, a > 0.93 [165]; MRK509, a = 0.78 +0.04 −0.03 [165]; MRK 79, a = 0.7±0.1 [166]. However, several free parameters enter in the fitting procedure, creating a severe degeneracy problem.…”

Section: Spin Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Practical Guide to the Massive Black Hole Cosmic History

Sesana

2012

Advances in Astronomy

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I review our current understanding of massive black hole (MBH) formation and evolution along the cosmic history. After a brief introductory overview of the relevance of MBHs in the hierarchical structure formation paradigm, I discuss the main viable channels for seed BH formation at high redshift and for their subsequent mass growth and spin evolution. The emerging hierarchical picture, where MBHs grow through merger triggered accretion episodes, acquiring their mass while shining as quasars, is overall robust, but too simplistic to explain the diversity observed in MBH phenomenology. I briefly discuss which future observations will help to shed light on the MBH cosmic history in the near future, paying particular attention to the upcoming gravitational wave window.

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Iron line profiles in Suzaku spectra of bare Seyfert galaxies

Cited by 86 publications

References 55 publications

No signatures of black hole spin in the X-ray spectrum of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Fairall 9

No signatures of black hole spin in the X-ray spectrum of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Fairall 9

A hard X-ray view of the soft excess in AGN

A Practical Guide to the Massive Black Hole Cosmic History

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