Article

# Probing Relativistic Astrophysics Around SMBHs: The Suzaku AGN Spin Survey

11/2011;
Source: arXiv

ABSTRACT In addition to providing vital clues as to the formation and evolution of
black holes, the spin of black holes may be an important energy source in the
Universe. Over the past couple of years, tremendous progress has been made in
the realm of observational measurements of spin. In particular, detailed
characterization and modeling of X-ray spectral features emitted from the inner
regions of black hole accretion disks have allowed us to probe the location of
the innermost stable circular orbit and hence the spin. In this contribution, I
will describe the Suzaku AGN Spin Survey, an on-going Cycle 4--6 Suzaku Key
Project that aims to probe five nearby AGN with sufficient depth that strong
gravity effects and spin can be robustly assessed. Of the three objects for
which we currently have our deep datasets, we can constrain spin in two
(NGC3783, a>0.9; Fairall 9, $a=0.45\pm 0.15$) whereas complexities with the
warm absorber prevent us from reporting results for NGC3516. We conclude with a
brief discussion of spin-dependent selection biases in flux-limited surveys.

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### Keywords

black hole accretion disks

black holes

brief discussion

energy source

Fairall 9

innermost stable circular orbit

modeling

observational measurements

spin-dependent selection biases

tremendous progress

warm absorber