Role of limb brightening in the angular momentum determination of accreting black holes

Statistics – Computation

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

Angular momentum of an accreting black hole can be determined by careful spectroscopy of the emission and absorption features produced in the inner regions of an accretion disc. We discuss the method employing the relativistic line profiles of iron in the X-ray domain, where the emergent spectrum is blurred by general relativistic effects. Accuracy of the spectra fitting can be affected by inappropriate account of the directional distribution of the disc emission. However, most works so far have avoided this issue by fixing a unique profile of the angular distribution, invariable over the entire range of radii in the disc and energy in the spectral band. An isotropic distribution or a particular limb-darkening law have been frequently assumed, although some calculations of the X-ray reflection suggest that the limb brightening would be more appropriate for the accretion disc surface. By assuming a rotating black hole in the centre of an equatorial accretion disc, we perform numerical radiation-transfer computations to determine the directionality of outgoing X-rays in the 2-10 keV energy band. In order to evaluate the feasibility of future angular measurments and their expected constraints with future X-ray data, we produced a set of artificial spectra using a simple model prescription and preliminary response matrix for the IXO mission. We show how sensitive the results of the black-hole angular momentum determination are to the assumptions about the intrinsic directional distribution of the emitted photons. The results depend on the values of the inclination angle and the spin itself. However, we find that the isotropic directionality reproduces our data to the best precision.

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