Abstract
We present evidence for widespread relativistic effects in the central regions of active galactic nuclei. In a sample of 18 Seyfert 1 galaxies observed by ASCA, 14 show an iron Kα line that is resolved, with mean width σKα = 0.43 ± 0.12 keV for a Gaussian profile (full width at half-maximum, FWHM ~ 50,000 km s-1). However, many of the line profiles are asymmetric. A strong red wing is indicative of gravitational redshifts close to a central black hole, and accretion disk models provide an excellent description of the data.
The peak energy of the line is 6.4 keV, which indicates that it arises by fluorescence in near-neutral material. Our fits imply a low inclination for the disk in these Seyfert 1 galaxies, with a mean of 30°, consistent with orientation-dependent unification schemes. Differences in the line profiles from source to source imply slight variations in geometry, which cannot be accounted for solely by inclination. In most cases, we require that the line emission arises from a range of radii. Although a small contribution to the emission from a region other than the disk is not ruled out, it is not generally required and has little effect on our conclusions regarding the disk line. Our data are fit equally well with rotating (Kerr) and nonrotating (Schwarzschild) black hole models. We find a mean spectral index in the 3-10 keV range of ⟨Γ3-10⟩ = 1.91 ± 0.07 after accounting for the effects of reflection.
Such observations probe the innermost regions of active galactic nuclei and arguably provide the best evidence yet obtained for the existence of supermassive black holes in the centers of active galaxies.
Export citation and abstract BibTeX RIS