Relativistic Fe K$\alpha$ Line Revealed in the Composite X-ray Spectrum of Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies --- do their black holes have averagely low or intermediate spins?

TL;DR

This study uses stacked X-ray spectra of 51 Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies to reveal a broad relativistic Fe Kα emission line, suggesting their black holes may have low or intermediate spins.

Contribution

First to analyze the ensemble Fe Kα line profile in NLS1s through spectral stacking, revealing relativistic broad lines and potential spin constraints.

Findings

Detected a broad Fe Kα line in stacked spectra

Indications of low or intermediate black hole spins

Possible superimposed narrow Fe lines

Abstract

While a broad profile of the Fe K$\alpha$ emission line is frequently found in the X-ray spectra of typical Seyfert galaxies, the situation is unclear in the case of Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s)---an extreme subset which are generally thought to harbor less massive black holes with higher accretion rates. In this paper, the ensemble property of the Fe K$\alpha$ line in NLS1s is investigated by stacking the X-ray spectra of a large sample of 51 NLS1s observed with {\it XMM-Newton}. The composite X-ray spectrum reveals a prominent, broad emission feature over 4--7 keV, characteristic of the broad Fe K$\alpha$ line. In addition, there is an indication for a possible superimposing narrow (unresolved) line, either emission or absorption, corresponding to Fe XXVI or Fe XXV, respectively. The profile of the broad emission feature can well be fitted with relativistic broad-line models, with the line energy consistent either with 6.4 keV (i.e., neutral Fe) or with 6.67 keV (i.e., highly ionized Fe), in the case of the narrow line being emission and absorption, respectively. Interestingly, there are tentative indications for low or intermediate values of the average spins of the black holes ($a<0.84$), as inferred from the profile of the composite broad line. If the observed feature is indeed a broad line rather than resulting from partial covering absorption, our results suggest that a relativistic Fe line may in fact be common in NLS1s; and there are tentative indications that black holes in NLS1s may not spin very fast in general.