The black hole spin and soft X-ray excess of the luminous Seyfert galaxy Fairall 9

Abstract

We present an analysis of all XMM-Newton and Suzaku X-ray spectra of the nearby luminous Seyfert galaxy Fairall9. Confirming previous analyses, we find robust evidence for a broad iron line associated with X-ray reflection from the innermost accretion disk. By fitting a spectral model that includes a relativistically ionized reflection component, we examine the constraints on the inclination of the inner accretion disk and the black hole spin, and the complications introduced by the presence of a photoionized emission line system. Employing multi-epoch fitting, we attempt to obtain robust and concordant measures of the accretion disk parameters. We also clearly see a soft X-ray excess in Fairall 9. During certain epochs, the soft excess can be described with the same disk reflection component that produces the iron line. However, there are epochs where an additional soft component is required. This can be attributed to either an additional highly ionized, strongly blurred disk reflection component or a new X-ray continuum component. © 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.