THE SPIN OF THE SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE IN NGC 3783
- Harvard-Smithsonian CfA, 60 Garden Street MS-67, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)
- MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)
- Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Rd., Cambridge CB3 0HA (United Kingdom)
- ICREA and Institut de Ciencies del Cosmos (ICC), Universitat de Barcelona (IEEC-UB), Marti i Franques, 1, 08028 Barcelona (Spain)
- Department of Astronomy, Harvard University, Harvard-Smithsonian CfA, 60 Garden Street MS-6, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States)
- Max-Planck-Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85740 Garching (Germany)
The Suzaku AGN Spin Survey is designed to determine the supermassive black hole spin in six nearby active galactic nuclei (AGNs) via deep Suzaku stares, thereby giving us our first glimpse of the local black hole spin distribution. Here, we present an analysis of the first target to be studied under the auspices of this Key Project, the Seyfert galaxy NGC 3783. Despite complexity in the spectrum arising from a multi-component warm absorber, we detect and study relativistic reflection from the inner accretion disk. Assuming that the X-ray reflection is from the surface of a flat disk around a Kerr black hole, and that no X-ray reflection occurs within the general relativistic radius of marginal stability, we determine a lower limit on the black hole spin of a {>=} 0.88 (99% confidence). We examine the robustness of this result to the assumption of the analysis and present a brief discussion of spin-related selection biases that might affect flux-limited samples of AGNs.
- OSTI ID:
- 21578260
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 736, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/736/2/103; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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