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Broad Iron Kα Emissions from NGC 3516:Revelation of a Non-Disk Thin-Torus around a Kerr Black Hole with a Detailed Formulation on the Emission Mechanism


Affiliations
1 California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA, United States
 

ASCA observations present broad iron (Fe) Kα emission lines in Seyfert(-like) AGNs. The line is explained to originate from a thin disk surrounding the central black hole (BH) which is either rotating or non-rotating. Based on previous theoretical and observational studies, we propose a non-disk thin-torus to exist in the inner region of the disk around a Kerr (rotating) BH. We develop the commonly-used thin-disk model to the thin torus model in this special region under the Kerr metric and calculate the profiles of the Fe K α lines. By extending previous work, we formulate in details the emission mechanism in this paper. The spectra of a sample galaxy, NGC 3516, is then revisited. New results are as follows: (1) the central BH is not static but rotating, with a dimensionless specific angular momentum, a>0.4, the best-fit of which is 0.9; (2) the radial position of the thin torus is within (20-40)rg, where rg is the gravitational radius of the BH; (3) the inclination angle θ0 of the observer is smaller than 50°; and, (4) the extension of torus to both sides of the equatorial plane can reach 67.3°. Specifically, simulations expose that the so-called "absorption" feature of the line spectrum around 6.0 key may not be realistic; and, the humps and troughs of the broad line spectra are contributed by the four types of particles around the central BH.

Keywords

Black Hole, Fe Kα Lines, AGNs, Seyfert, Kerr Metric, Photons, NGC.
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  • Broad Iron Kα Emissions from NGC 3516:Revelation of a Non-Disk Thin-Torus around a Kerr Black Hole with a Detailed Formulation on the Emission Mechanism

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Authors

J. Z. G. Ma
California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA, United States

Abstract


ASCA observations present broad iron (Fe) Kα emission lines in Seyfert(-like) AGNs. The line is explained to originate from a thin disk surrounding the central black hole (BH) which is either rotating or non-rotating. Based on previous theoretical and observational studies, we propose a non-disk thin-torus to exist in the inner region of the disk around a Kerr (rotating) BH. We develop the commonly-used thin-disk model to the thin torus model in this special region under the Kerr metric and calculate the profiles of the Fe K α lines. By extending previous work, we formulate in details the emission mechanism in this paper. The spectra of a sample galaxy, NGC 3516, is then revisited. New results are as follows: (1) the central BH is not static but rotating, with a dimensionless specific angular momentum, a>0.4, the best-fit of which is 0.9; (2) the radial position of the thin torus is within (20-40)rg, where rg is the gravitational radius of the BH; (3) the inclination angle θ0 of the observer is smaller than 50°; and, (4) the extension of torus to both sides of the equatorial plane can reach 67.3°. Specifically, simulations expose that the so-called "absorption" feature of the line spectrum around 6.0 key may not be realistic; and, the humps and troughs of the broad line spectra are contributed by the four types of particles around the central BH.

Keywords


Black Hole, Fe Kα Lines, AGNs, Seyfert, Kerr Metric, Photons, NGC.