Relativistic accretion disk reflection in AGN X-ray spectra at z=0.5--4: a study of four \textit{Chandra} deep fields

Abstract

We confirm that the spectra are best fit by a model containing two Compton reflection components, one from distant material, and the other displaying relativistic broadening, most likely from the inner accretion disk. The degree of relativistic broadening indicates a preference for high black hole spin, but the reflection is weaker than that expected for a flat disk illuminated by a point source. We investigate the Compton reflection signatures as a function of luminosity, redshift and obscuration, confirming an X-ray Baldwin effect for both the narrow and broad components of the iron line. Anti-correlations are also seen with redshift and obscuring column density, but are difficult to disentangle from the Baldwin effect. Our methodology is able to extract information from multiple spectra with low signal-to-noise ratio, and can be applied to future data sets such as eROSITA. We show using simulations, however, that it is necessary to apply an appropriate signal-to-noise ratio cut to the samples to ensure the spectra add useful information.

16 pages, 10 figures, submitted to MNRAS

References in corpus (15)

• Astrophysics Source Code Library
• An XMM-Newton survey of broad iron lines in Seyfert galaxies
• Constraining Black Hole Spin Via X-ray Spectroscopy
• The Chandra Deep Field-South Survey: 7 Ms Source Catalogs
• eROSITA Science Book: Mapping the Structure of the Energetic Universe
• Photometric redshift and classification for the XMM-COSMOS sources
• The close environments of accreting massive black holes are shaped by radiative feedback
• Obscuration-dependent evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU)
• On the origin of the Fe K-alpha line cores in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Average Fe K-alpha emission from distant AGN
• The Fundamental Incompatibility of Hamiltonian Monte Carlo and Data Subsampling
• Relativistic reflection in the average X-ray spectrum of AGN in the Véron-Cetty & Véron catalogue
• Dependence of the broad Fe K$\alpha$ line on the physical parameters of AGN
• Constraining Quasar Relativistic Reflection Regions and Spins with Microlensing

Cited by in corpus (6)

• First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. IV. Variability, Morphology, and Black Hole Mass
• The Empirical Limits of Gyrochronology
• A panchromatic view of infrared quasars: excess star formation and radio emission in the most heavily obscured systems
• The DESI PRObabilistic Value-Added Bright Galaxy Survey (PROVABGS) Mock Challenge
• The eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS): the hard X-ray selected sample
• NuSTAR view of heavily absorbed AGN: The $R-N_{\text{H}}$ correlation