The profile and equivalent width of the X-ray iron emission line from a disc around a Kerr black hole

Dabrowski, Y.; Fabian, A. C.; Iwasawa, K.; Lasenby, A.; Reynolds, C. S.

doi:10.1093/mnras/288.1.l11

Cited by 157 publications

(133 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

126

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A long ASCA observation of this source had caught its transition to the so-called "Deep Minimum State" in which Iwasawa et al (1996) noticed that the iron line was too broadened and redshifted to be explained by a non-rotating black hole. Subsequent modeling of this line profile by Dabrowski et al (1997) concluded that a > 0.95 under the assumption that the irradiation profile of the reflection follows a Novikov-Thorne profile. In its original form, however, this analysis was not completely robust - Reynolds & Begelman (1997) showed that, in a lamp-post geometry 1 , the combination of light-bending effects and a small penetration of the line-emitting region inside of the ISCO could render the Deep Minimum line profile consistent with Schwarzschild (a = 0) geometry.…”

Section: Early Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Black Hole Spin Using X-Ray Reflection Spectroscopy

Reynolds¹

2013

The Physics of Accretion Onto Black Holes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

I review the current status of X-ray reflection (a.k.a. broad iron line) based black hole spin measurements. This is a powerful technique that allows us to measure robust black hole spins across the mass range, from the stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries to the supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei. After describing the basic assumptions of this approach, I lay out the detailed methodology focusing on "best practices" that have been found necessary to obtain robust results. Reflecting my own biases, this review is slanted towards a discussion of supermassive black hole (SMBH) spin in active galactic nuclei (AGN). Pulling together all of the available XMM-Newton and Suzaku results from the literature that satisfy objective quality control criteria, it is clear that a large fraction of SMBHs are rapidlyspinning, although there are tentative hints of a more slowly spinning population at high (M > 5 × 10 7 M ⊙ ) and low (M < 2 × 10 6 M ⊙ ) mass. I also engage in a brief review of the spins of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries. In general, reflection-based and continuum-fitting based spin measures are in agreement, although there remain two objects (GRO J1655-40 and 4U 1543-475) for which that is not true. I end this review by discussing the exciting frontier of relativistic reverberation, particularly the discovery of broad iron line reverberation in XMM-Newton data for the Seyfert galaxies NGC 4151, NGC 7314 and MCG-5-23-16. As well as confirming the basic paradigm of relativistic disk reflection, this detection of reverberation demonstrates that future large-area X-ray observatories such as LOFT will make tremendous progress in studies of strong gravity using relativistic reverberation in AGN.

show abstract

Section: Early Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Black Hole Spin Using X-Ray Reflection Spectroscopy

Reynolds¹

2013

The Physics of Accretion Onto Black Holes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Attempts to derive the emissivity dependence from radius by "inverting" observed line profiles have also been made, e.g., byČadež et al (1999), Dabrowski et al (1997), and Mannucci, Salvati & Stanga (1992).…”

Section: Appendix: Fitting Formulae For the Emissivity Laws And Integmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Kerr space-time on spectral features from X-ray illuminated accretion discs

Martocchia¹,

Karas²,

Matt³

2000

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

110

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We performed detailed calculations of the relativistic effects acting on both the reflection continuum and the iron line from accretion discs around rotating black holes. Fully relativistic transfer of both illuminating and reprocessed photons has been considered in Kerr spacetime. We calculated overall spectra, line profiles and integral quantities, and present their dependences on the black hole angular momentum. We show that the observed EW of the lines is substantially enlarged when the black hole rotates rapidly and/or the source of illumination is near above the hole. Therefore, such calculations provide a way to distinguish among different models of the central source.

show abstract

“…This latter result implies that the emission originated from r < 6M , which, given the assumption that radiation from within the ISCO is unobservable, implies black hole spin. In fact, a fit to the data requires a * > 0.94 [163].…”

Section: Circular Orbits In the Kerr Potentialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atomic X-ray spectroscopy of accreting black holes

Liedahl¹,

Torres²

2005

Can. J. Phys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Current astrophysical research suggests that the most persistently luminous objects in the Universe are powered by the flow of matter through accretion disks onto black holes. Accretion disk systems are observed to emit copious radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, each energy band providing access to rather distinct regimes of physical conditions and geometric scale. X-ray emission probes the innermost regions of the accretion disk, where relativistic effects prevail. While this has been known for decades, it also has been acknowledged that inferring physical conditions in the relativistic regime from the behavior of the X-ray continuum is problematic and not satisfactorily constraining. With the discovery in the 1990s of iron X-ray lines bearing signatures of relativistic distortion came the hope that such emission would more firmly constrain models of disk accretion near black holes, as well as provide observational criteria by which to test general relativity in the strong field limit. Here we provide an introduction to this phenomenon. While the presentation is intended to be primarily tutorial in nature, we aim also to acquaint the reader with trends in current research. To achieve these ends, we present the basic applications of general relativity that pertain to X-ray spectroscopic observations of black hole accretion disk systems, focusing on the Schwarzschild and Kerr solutions to the Einstein field equations. To this we add treatments of the fundamental concepts associated with the theoretical and modeling aspects of accretion disks, as well as relevant topics from observational and theoretical X-ray spectroscopy. PACS Nos.: 32.30. Rj, 32.80.Hd, 95.30.Dr, 95.30.Sf, 95.85.Nv, 97.10.Gz. 97.80.Jp, 98.35.Mp, 98.62.Mw

show abstract

The profile and equivalent width of the X-ray iron emission line from a disc around a Kerr black hole

Cited by 157 publications

References 16 publications

Measuring Black Hole Spin Using X-Ray Reflection Spectroscopy

Measuring Black Hole Spin Using X-Ray Reflection Spectroscopy

Effects of Kerr space-time on spectral features from X-ray illuminated accretion discs

Atomic X-ray spectroscopy of accreting black holes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About