ON THE PROSPECT OF CONSTRAINING BLACK HOLE SPIN THROUGH X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY OF HOTSPOTS
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Author(s)
Yaqoob, Tahir
Karas, Vladimir
Dovciak, Michal
Murphy, Kendrah Dawn
Date Issued
July 2009
Journal
Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Citation
Murphy, Kendrah D., Tahir Yaqoob, Vladimir Karas, and Michal Dovciak. “ON THE PROSPECT OF CONSTRAINING BLACK HOLE SPIN THROUGH X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY OF HOTSPOTS.” The Astrophysical Journal 701, no. 1 (July 24, 2009): 635–641. © 2009 The American Astronomical Society
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Final published version
Abstract
Future X-ray instrumentation is expected to allow us to significantly improve the constraints derived from the Fe K lines in active galactic nuclei, such as the black hole angular momentum (spin) and the inclination angle of the putative accretion disk. We consider the possibility that measurements of the persistent, time-averaged Fe K line emission from the disk could be supplemented by the observation of a localized flare, or "hotspot," orbiting close to the black hole. Although observationally challenging, such measurements would recover some of the information loss that is inherent to the radially integrated line profiles. We present calculations for this scenario to assess the extent to which, in principle, black hole spin may be measured. We quantify the feasibility of this approach using realistic assumptions about likely measurement uncertainties.
MIT Department
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/701/1/635
