Fe K Line Profile in Low-redshift Quasars: Average Shape and Eddington Ratio Dependence

Details Fe K Line Profile in Low-redshift Quasars: Average Shape and Eddington Ratio Dependence Fe K Line Profile in Low-redshift Quasars: Average Shape and Eddington Ratio Dependence

2007-03-14

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0703350v1

Astrophys.J.662:860-871,2007

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

Scientific paper

10.1086/517995

We analyze X-ray spectra of 43 Palomar-Green quasars observed with {\it XMM-Newton} in order to investigate their mean Fe K line profile and its dependence on physical properties. The continuum spectra of 39 objects are well reproduced by a model consisting of a power law and a blackbody modified by Galactic absorption. The spectra of the remaining four objects require an additional power-law component absorbed with a column density of $\sim 10^{23} {\rm cm}^{-2}$. We fit the entire sample simultaneously to derive average Fe line parameters by assuming a common Fe line shape. The Fe line is relatively narrow ($\sigma=0.36$ keV), with a center energy of 6.48 keV and a mean equivalent width (EW) of 248 eV. By combining black hole masses estimated from the virial method and bolometric luminosities derived from full spectral energy distributions, we examine the dependence of the Fe K line profile on Eddington ratio. As the Eddington ratio increases, the line becomes systematically stronger (EW = 130 to 280 eV), broader ($\sigma=0.1$ to 0.7 keV), and peaks at higher energies (6.4 to 6.8 keV). This result suggests that the accretion rate onto the black hole directly influences the geometrical structure and ionization state of the accretion disk.

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