NuSTAR observations of Mrk 766: distinguishing reflection from absorption

Abstract

We present two new NuSTAR observations of the narrow line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxy Mrk 766 and give constraints on the two scenarios previously proposed to explain its spectrum and that of other NLS1s: relativistic reflection and partial covering. The NuSTAR spectra show a strong hard (>15 keV) X-ray excess, while simultaneous soft X-ray coverage of one of the observations provided by XMM-Newton constrains the ionised absorption in the source. The pure reflection model requires a black hole of high spin ($a>0.92$) viewed at a moderate inclination ($i=46_{-4}^{+1}$ degrees). The pure partial covering model requires extreme parameters: the cut-off of the primary continuum is very low ($22_{-5}^{+7}$ keV) in one observation and the intrinsic X-ray emission must provide a large fraction (75%) of the bolometric luminosity. Allowing a hybrid model with both partial covering and reflection provides more reasonable absorption parameters and relaxes the constraints on reflection parameters. The fractional variability reduces around the iron K band and at high energies including the Compton hump, suggesting that the reflected emission is less variable than the continuum.

arXiv comment14 pages, 10 figures, MNRAS accepted

References in corpus (63)

• emcee: The MCMC Hammer
• On the Absorption of X-rays in the Interstellar Medium
• The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) Mission
• Atomic Data for Astrophysics. II. New Analytic Fits for Photoionization Cross Sections of Atoms and Ions
• Methods and results of an automatic analysis of a complete sample of Swift-XRT observations of GRBs
• On characterising the variability properties of X-ray light curves from active galaxies
• Improved Reflection Models of Black-Hole Accretion Disks: Treating the Angular Distribution of X-rays
• Statistics: Handle with Care, Detecting Multiple Model Components with the Likelihood Ratio Test
• Evidence for ultra-fast outflows in radio-quiet AGNs: I - detection and statistical incidence of Fe K-shell absorption lines
• An XMM-Newton survey of broad iron lines in Seyfert galaxies
• ASCA observations of Seyfert 1 galaxies: II. Relativistic Iron K-alpha emission
• BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey - V. X-ray properties of the Swift/BAT 70-month AGN catalog
• A light bending model for the X-ray temporal and spectral properties of accreting black holes
• The Lick AGN Monitoring Project: Broad-Line Region Radii and Black Hole Masses from Reverberation Mapping of Hbeta
• X-ray Spectral Variability and Rapid Variability of the Soft X-ray Spectrum Seyfert 1 Galaxies Ark 564 and Ton S180
• Broad emission lines for negatively spinning black holes
• A rapidly spinning supermassive black hole at the centre of NGC 1365
• Discovery of a relation between black hole mass and soft X-ray time lags in active galactic nuclei
• Resolved atomic lines reveal outflows in two ultraluminous X-ray sources
• A global look at X-ray time lags in Seyfert Galaxies
• Compton reflection and iron fluorescence in BeppoSAX observations of Seyfert type 1 galaxies
• The Lick AGN Monitoring Project: Reverberation Mapping of Optical Hydrogen and Helium Recombination Lines
• On the origin of soft X-rays in obscured AGN: answers from high-resolution spectroscopy with XMM-Newton
• X-ray continuum variability of MCG-6-30-15
• The iron line in MCG-6-30-15 from XMM-Newton: evidence for gravitational light-bending?
• Relativistic iron K X-ray Reverberation in NGC 4151
• Warm absorbers in X-rays (WAX), a comprehensive high resolution grating spectral study of a sample of Seyfert galaxies: I. A global view and frequency of occurrence of warm absorbers
• Suzaku observations of the hard X-ray variability of MCG-6-30-15: the effects of strong gravity around a Kerr black hole
• X-ray absorption by Broad Line Region Clouds in Mrk 766
• The power output of local obscured and unobscured AGN: crossing the absorption barrier with Swift/BAT and IRAS
• The NuSTAR spectrum of Mrk 335: Extreme relativistic effects within 2 gravitational radii of the event horizon?
• Soft X-ray emission lines from a relativistic accretion disk in MCG -6-30-15 and Mrk 766
• General relativistic modelling of the negative reverberation X-ray time delays in AGN
• The variable X-ray spectrum of Markarian 766 - I. Principal components analysis
• Negative X-ray reverberation time delays from MCG-6-30-15 and Mrk 766
• The broad band spectral variability of MCG-6-30-15 observed by NuSTAR and XMM-Newton
• NuSTAR and XMM-Newton Observations of NGC 1365: Extreme Absorption Variability and a Constant Inner Accretion Disk
• The Closest Look at 1H0707-495: X-ray Reverberation Lags with 1.3 Ms of Data
• The high-Eddington NLS1 Ark 564 has the coolest corona
• The Broad-band X-ray Spectrum of IC 4329A from a Joint NuSTAR/Suzaku Observation
• Can a Dusty Warm Absorber Model Reproduce the Soft X-ray Spectra of MCG-6-30-15 and Mrk 766?
• The Variable X-ray Spectrum of Markarian 766 - II. Time-Resolved Spectroscopy
• A comprehensive analysis of the hard X-ray spectra of bright Seyfert galaxies
• Ultraviolet and X-ray variability of active galactic nuclei with Swift
• Revealing the ultra-fast outflow in IRAS 13224-3809 through spectral variability
• Fe K emission and absorption features in XMM-Newton spectra of Mkn 766 - evidence for reprocessing in flare ejecta
• Suzaku Observation of a Hard Excess in 1H 0419-577: Detection of a Compton-Thick Partial-Covering Absorber
• Coronal Properties of the Seyfert 1.9 Galaxy MCG -05-23-016 Determined from Hard X-ray Spectroscopy with NuSTAR
• Revealing the X-ray Variability of AGN with Principal Component Analysis
• On Estimating the High-Energy Cutoff in the X-ray Spectra of Black Holes via Reflection Spectroscopy
• The soft X-ray absorption lines of the Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG--6-30-15
• NuSTAR and XMM-Newton Observations of the Hard X-Ray Spectrum of Centaurus A
• Broadband X-ray spectral analysis of the Seyfert 1 galaxy GRS 1734-292
• The Compton hump and variable blue wing in the extreme low-flux NuSTAR observations of 1H0707-495
• Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• A strong excess in the 20-100 keV emission of NGC 1365
• Principal Component Analysis of MCG--6-30-15 with XMM-Newton
• X-ray reflection from the inner disk of the AGN Ton S180
• X-Ray Absorption Analysis of MCG-6-30-15: Discerning Three Kinematic Systems
• The changing X-ray time lag in MCG-6-30-15
• The hard X-ray perspective on the soft X-ray excess
• Analysis of X-ray spectral variability and black hole mass determination of the NLS1 galaxy Mrk 766
• Three AGN Close To The Effective Eddington Limit

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Observational Constraints on Black Hole Spin
• Towards precision measurements of accreting black holes using X-ray reflection spectroscopy
• The soft X-ray excess: NLS1s vs. BLS1s
• Confrontation of Observation and Theory: High Frequency QPOs in X-ray Binaries, Tidal Disruption Events, and Active Galactic Nuclei
• Relations between phenomenological and physical parameters in the hot coronae of AGNs computed with the MoCA code
• A Full Characterisation of the Supermassive Black Hole in IRAS 09149-6206
• An Elusive Population of Massive Disk Galaxies Hosting Double-lobed Radio-loud AGNs
• Correlation between relativistic reflection fraction and photon index in NuSTAR sample of Seyfert 1 AGN
• Testing the Kerr metric with X-ray Reflection Spectroscopy of Mrk 335 Suzaku data
• The properties of the X-ray corona in the distant ($z=3.91$) quasar APM 08279+5255
• Search for X-ray Quasi-periodicity of six AGNs using Gaussian Process method
• Origin of the complex iron line structure and spectral variation in Mrk 766
• Constraining Energy-dependent emissivity profiles of AGN inflows
• Investigating the complex absorbers of Mrk 766 with XMM-Newton
• Constraining black hole spin in PG 1535+547 amidst complex multi-layered absorption