Tracing Fe K X-ray reverberation lag in the energy-resolved spectra of Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy Ton S180

TL;DR

This study detects Fe K reverberation lag in the galaxy Ton S180, providing insights into black hole spin, mass, and corona height through spectral and timing analysis, marking a novel observation in Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies.

Contribution

First detection of Fe K reverberation lag in Ton S180, with independent spin and mass measurements using relativistic transfer function modeling.

Findings

Fe K lag peaks at 117±49 s at low frequencies

Black hole spin estimated at ~0.3-0.43 from spectral and timing data

Fe K lag correlates linearly with black hole mass in Seyfert 1 galaxies

Abstract

We report the Fe K relativistic reverberation feature for the first time in the Narrow-line Seyfert\,1 galaxy Ton\,S180. Using a long observation from {\it XMM-Newton} we find that the Fe K emission lag peaks at $117\pm49$ s in the lag energy spectrum computed for frequencies $(0.3-8.5) \times 10^{-4}$ Hz. The lag amplitude drops to $22.85\pm14.20$ s as the frequency increases to $(8.5-30) \times 10^{-4}$ Hz. The time-averaged spectrum of the source shows a relatively narrow Fe K line at $\sim6.4$ keV, resulting in black hole spin to be low ($a=\rm 0.43_{-0.14}^{+0.10}$) found from the reflection modelling. We perform general relativistic transfer function modelling of the lag energy spectra individually. This provides an independent timing-based measure of the spin at $a=0.30_{-0.17}^{+0.34}$, and black hole mass $M_{\rm BH} = 0.29_{-0.16}^{+0.01}\times10^8M_{\odot}$, comparable to the previous measurement, and height of the corona $h = 2.59_{-0.33}^{+5.17}r_{\rm g}$. Further, we observe that the Fe K lag and the black hole mass fit well in the linear lag-mass relation shown by other Seyfert 1 galaxies.