Modeling the Black Hole Spin
Pre-published on:
August 14, 2023
Published on:
September 27, 2024
Abstract
Ever since the launch of the NuSTAR mission, the hard X-ray range is being covered to an un- precedented sensitivity. This range encodes the reflection features arising from active galactic nuclei (AGN). Especially, the reflection of the primary radiation off the accretion disk carries the features of the manifestation of General Relativity described by the Kerr metric due to rotating supermassive black holes (SMBHs). We show the results of the broadband analyses of Mrk 876. The spectra exhibit the signature of a Compton hump at energies above 10 keV and a broadened and skewed excess at energies ∼6 keV. We establish this spectral excess to be statistically sig- nificant at 99.71% (∼3 sigma) that is the post-trail probability through Monte Carlo simulations. Based on the spectral fit results and the significance of spectral features the relativistic reflection model is favored over the distant reflection scenario. The excess at ∼6 keV has a complex shape that we try to recover along with the Compton hump through a self-consistent X-ray reflection model. This allows inferring an upper limit to the black hole spin of a<0.85, while the inclina- tion angle of the accretion disk results in i=32.84 (+12.228.99) degrees, which is in agreement within the errors with a previous independent measurement (i=15.4 (+12.1/-6.8) degrees). While most spin measurements are biased toward high spin values, the black hole mass of Mrk 876 (2.4x108 Msun < M < 1.3x109 Msun) lies in a range where moderately spinning SMBHs are expected. Moreover, the analyses of twelve Chandra observations reveal for the first time X-ray variability of Mrk876 with an amplitude of 40%.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22323/1.444.0936
How to cite
Metadata are provided both in "article" format (very similar to INSPIRE) as this helps creating
very compact bibliographies which can be beneficial to authors and
readers, and in "proceeding" format
which is more detailed and complete.