Delving into the depths of NGC 3783 with XRISM

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Authors: Chen Li, J. S. Kaastra, Liyi Gu, M. Mehdipour, Megan Eckart, et al., Erin Kara, Laura W. Brenneman, Misaki Mizumoto, M. Miller, Chen Li, Ehud Behar
+9 more Christos Panagiotou, Matilde Signorini, Keqin Zhao, Ralf Ballhausen, C. M. Diez, Timothy Kallman, Shoji Ogawa, A. Tanimoto, Yoshihiro Ueda
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References: 55

Abstract

Using XRISM/Resolve 439 ks time-averaged spectra of the well-known Seyfert-1.5 active galactic nucleus (AGN) in NGC 3783, we investigated the nature of the Fe K α emission line at 6.4 keV, the strongest and most common X-ray line observed in AGNs. Even the narrow component of the line is resolved with evident Fe K α 1 (6.404 keV) and K α 2 (6.391 keV) contributions with a 2:1 flux ratio, fully consistent with a neutral gas with negligible bulk velocity. The narrow and intermediate-width components have a full width at half maximum of 350 ± 50 km/s and 3510 ± 470 km/s, respectively, suggesting that they arise in the outer disk/torus and/or broad line region. We detect a 10% excess flux around 4–7 keV that is not described well by a symmetric Gaussian line but is consistent with a relativistically broadened emission line. In this study we took the simplest approach, modelling the asymmetric line as a single emission line (assuming neutral, He-like, or H-like iron) convolved with a relativistic disk line model. As expected, the inferred inclination angle ( i ) is highly sensitive to the assumed ionisation state and ranges between 17 and 44°. This model also constrains the black hole spin via the extent of the red wing: the required gravitational redshift in the fitted disk-line profile disfavours a non-spinning (Schwarzschild) black hole. The derived inner radius is close to the radius of the innermost stable circular orbit ( r ISCO ) and is strongly correlated with the black hole spin. To better constrain the spin, we fixed the inner radius to r ISCO and derived a lower limit on the spin of a ≥ 0.29 at the 3 σ confidence level. A Compton shoulder is detected in our data as well as a 2–3 σ detection of the Cr K α and Ni K α lines.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations Galaxies: Formation Evolution Phenomena Astronomy and Astrophysical Research

Publication details

Journal / source
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Volume
706
Pages
A255–A255
Publication date
6 January 2026