Constraining Black Hole Spin via X-Ray Spectroscopy

By L. Brenneman, C. Reynolds. 2006

476 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present an analysis of the observed broad iron line feature and putative warm absorber in the long 2001 XMM-Newton observation of the Seyfert 1.2 galaxy MCG -06-30-15. The new kerrdisk model we have designed for simulating line emission from accretion disk systems allows black hole spin to be a free parameter in the fit, enabling the user to formally constrain the angular momentum of a black hole, among other physical parameters of the system. In an important extension of previous work, we derive constraints on the black hole spin in MCG -06-30-15 using a self-consistent model for X-ray reflection from the surface of the accretion disk while simultaneously accounting for absorption by dusty photoionized material along the line of sight (the warm absorber). Even including these complications, the XMM-Newton EPIC pn data require extreme relativistic broadening of the X-ray reflection spectrum; assuming no emission from within the radius of marginal stability, we derive a formal constraint on the dimensionless black hole spin parameter of a = 0.989 at 90% confidence. The principal unmodeled effect that can significantly reduce the inferred black hole spin is powerful emission from within the radius of marginal stability. Although significant theoretical developments are required to fully understand this region, we argue that the need for a rapidly spinning black hole is robust to physically plausible levels of emission from within the radius of marginal stability. In particular, we show that a nonrotating black hole is strongly ruled out.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Ramesh Narayan
2. J. E. McClintock
3. Cosimo Bambi
4. A. C. Fabian
5. C. Reynolds
6. J. Steiner
7. Ronald A. Remillard
8. Jonathan M. Miller

In Instrumentation

1. J. E. McClintock
2. Ramesh Narayan
3. Ronald A. Remillard
4. J. Steiner
5. A. C. Fabian
6. C. Reynolds
7. Lijun Gou
8. J. Orosz

Citations in the corpus

• Testing black hole candidates with electromagnetic radiation (2015, methodology): “…geometry around BH candidates with X-ray measurements are the study of the thermal spectrum of thin disks (continuum-fitting method) (Li et al., 2005; McClintock et al., 2014; Zhang et al., 1997) and the analysis of the iron Kα line (Brenneman & Reynolds, 2006; Fabian et al., 1989; Reynolds, 2014).”
• THE EXTREME SPIN OF THE BLACK HOLE IN CYGNUS X-1 (2011, methodology): “To complete the model of the reflected component, we follow Brenneman & Reynolds (2006) and employ the line modelKERRDISK and the convolution smearing modelKERRCONV, both of which treata∗ as a free fit parameter20.”
• Irradiation of an accretion disc by a jet: general properties and implications for spin measurements of black holes (2013, background): “This problem has been extensively studied in the past and there are several models available to predictthe relativistic smearing given a certain emissivity of the accretion disc (e.g., Fabian et al. 1989; Laor 1991; Dovčiak, Karas & Yaqoob 2004; Brenneman & Reynolds 2006; Dauser et al. 2010).”
• Broad emission lines for a negatively spinning black hole (2010, methodology): “High signal-to-noise observations of AGN and Galactic black holes have already resulted in several measurements ofa with formally small error bars (Brenneman & Reynolds 2006; Miller et al. 2004, 2008, 2009), with systematic effects due to the high count rate of Galactic sources (Yamada et al. 2009;…”
• The evolution of massive black holes and their spins in their galactic hosts (2012, background): “…black holes and their spins in theirgalactic hosts 23 with the iron Kα measurements of the MBH spins in MCG6-30-15 and in NGC3783, which were claimed to be respectively abh > 0.987 (Brenneman & Reynolds 2006) andabh > 0.9 (Reynolds et al. 2011; Brenneman et al. 2011) at 90% confidence level.”
• The Masses and Spins of Neutron Stars and Stellar-Mass Black Holes (2014, background): “Thus with a simple relativistic smearing model (usually just a library of rays traced from close to the black hole to infinity; see [247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252]) the spin can be measured in sensitive X-ray spectra (see, e.”
• Broad iron L line and X-ray reverberation in 1H0707-495 (2009, methodology): “A fit using kerrdisc model from Brenneman & Reynolds (2006) gives a spin parameter a > 0.976 at 90 per cent confidence (where a is the dimensionless parameter a = cJ/GM2, with J being the angular momentum of a black hole of mass M , see Miller et al. 2009 for spin measurements using this method for…”
• Measuring the spins of accreting black holes (2011, background): “Brenneman and Reynolds (2006) and Miniutti et al (2009) show that the red wing extends downward to below 4 keV and conclude that a∗ > 0.98.”
• A systematic look at the Very High and Low/Hard state of GX 339-4: Constraining the black hole spin with a new reflection model (2008, methodology): “In order to verify our results against any systematic variation, we modelled the VHS with a KERRDISK line profile (Brenneman & Reynolds 2006).”
• Modeling Kicks from the Merger of Generic Black Hole Binaries (2008, result): “Low spin magnitudes would lower kicks, but this is contrary to spin inferences from Fe Kα lines; see Iwasawa (1996); Fabian et al. (2002); Reynolds & Nowak (2003); Brenneman & Reynolds (2006).”
• THE RADIATIVE EFFICIENCY OF ACCRETION FLOWS IN INDIVIDUAL ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (2010, background): “…angle of the AD emission, (Connors et al. 1980; Laor et al. 1990; Dovčiak et al. 2008; Schnittman & Krolik 2009), and the profile of lines emitted by the AD (Fabian et al. 1989; Kojima 1991; Laor 1991; Dabrowski et al. 1997; Beckwith & Done 2004; Brenneman & Reynolds 2006; Reynolds & Fabian 2008).”
• Relativistic X-Ray Lines from the Inner Accretion Disks Around Black Holes (2007, methodology): “Although many line profiles and variability trends strongly suggest high black hole spin parameters in a number of sources, this is only confirmed in the case of MCG-6-30-15 (Brenneman & Reynolds 2006).”
• Broad Iron-Kα Emission Lines as a Diagnostic of Black Hole Spin (2007, methodology): “Results using this technique on the Seyfert galaxy MCG 6-30-15 have been reported by Brenneman & Reynolds (2006), who report rather extreme constraints on the dimensionless black hole spin of a > 0:987 (also see Dabrowski et al. 1997).”
• An absorption origin for the X-ray spectral variability of MCG-6-30-15 (2008, methodology): “…effect of such zones on the observed continuum from this source, al- ough some analyses have included some of the known absorption zones (e.g. Brenneman & Reynolds, 2006): in this paper we shall investigate absorption-dominated models that both explain the continuum shapes and the…”
• X-RAY REFLECTED SPECTRA FROM ACCRETION DISK MODELS. I. CONSTANT DENSITY ATMOSPHERES (2010, background): “Brenneman & Reynolds (2006) have used this information to constrain the spin of the black hole harbored by this AGN.”