Relativistic reflection from accretion disks in the population of Active Galactic Nuclei at z=0.5-4

TL;DR

This study detects relativistic iron K alpha emission in AGN X-ray spectra at z=0.5-4, revealing that over half of these active galaxies have broad reflection features indicative of radiatively efficient accretion disks and possibly high black hole spins.

Contribution

It introduces a Bayesian spectral analysis approach to identify relativistic reflection in a large AGN sample, estimating the prevalence and black hole spin properties.

Findings

Over 50% of AGN show broad relativistic iron lines.

Evidence suggests most AGN have radiatively efficient accretion disks.

Preliminary data indicates high black hole spins.

Abstract

We report the detection of relativistically broadened iron K alpha emission in the X-ray spectra of AGN detected in the 4Ms CDF-S. Using the Bayesian X-ray analysis (BXA) package, we fit 199 hard band (2-7 keV) selected sources in the redshift range z=0.5--4 with three models: (i) an absorbed power-law, (ii) the first model plus a narrow reflection component, and (iii) the second model with an additional relativistic broadened reflection. The Bayesian evidence for the full sample of sources selects the model with the additional broad component as being 10^5 times more probable to describe the data better than the second model. For the two brightest sources in our sample, CID 190 (z=0.734) and CID 104 (z=0.543), BXA reveals the relativistic signatures in the individual spectra. We estimate the fraction of sources containing a broad component to be 54^{+35}_{-37}% (107/199 sources). Considering that the low signal-to-noise ratio of some spectra prevents the detection of the broad iron K alpha line, we infer an intrinsic fraction with broad emission of around two thirds. The detection of relativistic signatures in the X-ray spectra of these sources suggests that they are powered by a radiatively efficient accretion disk. Preliminary evidence is found that the spin of the black hole is high, with a maximally spinning Kerr BH model (a=1) providing a significantly better fit than a Schwarzschild model (a=0). Our analysis demonstrate the potential of X-ray spectroscopy to measure this key parameter in typical SMBH systems at the peak of BH growth.