Impact of the disk thickness on X-ray reflection spectroscopy measurements

Abstract

In a previous paper, we presented an extension of our reflection model RELXILL_NK to include the finite thickness of the accretion disk following the prescription in Taylor & Reynolds (2018). In this paper, we apply our model to fit the 2013 simultaneous observations by NuSTAR and XMM-Newton of the supermassive black hole in MCG-06-30-15 and the 2019 NuSTAR observation of the Galactic black hole in EXO 1846-031. The high-quality data of these spectra had previously led to precise black hole spin measurements and very stringent constraints on possible deviations from the Kerr metric. We find that the disk thickness does not change previous spin results found with a model employing an infinitesimally thin disk, which confirms the robustness of spin measurements in high radiative efficiency disks, where the impact of disk thickness is minimal. Similar analysis on lower accretion rate systems will be an important test for measuring the effect of disk thickness on black hole spin measurements.

arXiv comment16 pages, 9 figures. v2: refereed version

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• Black Hole Spin Measurements Based on a Thin Disc Model with Finite Thickness I. An example study of MCG-06-30-15
• Constraining the KRZ deformation parameters I: limits from supermassive black hole X-ray data
• Towards more accurate synthetic reflection spectra: improving the calculations of returning radiation
• Testing the Weak Equivalence Principle near black holes
• Testing Gravity with Black Hole X-Ray Data
• Impact of the returning radiation in current tests of the Kerr black hole hypothesis using X-ray reflection spectroscopy
• Impact of ionization and electron density gradients in X-ray reflection spectroscopy measurements
• Impact of reflection Comptonization on X-ray reflection spectroscopy: the case of EXO 1846-031
• The population of NuSTAR Black Hole X-ray Binaries
• Reflection Spectra of Accretion Disks Illuminated by an Off-Axis Corona
• Impact of the returning radiation on X-ray reflection spectroscopy measurements: the case of Galactic black holes
• Modeling reflection spectra of super-Eddington X-ray sources
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• Accretion Geometry of Black Hole X-ray Binaries: Insights from X-ray Observations
• Testing non-circular black hole spacetime with X-ray reflection