Impact of the X-ray Surveyor on Supermassive Black Hole Spin Measurements
Abstract
The past decade has seen remarkable progress in the field of measuring angular momentum in supermassive black holes: we now have roughly 25 AGN whose SMBHs have robust, published black hole spin constraints. Though this is a fine achievement by the collective observations of Chandra, XMM-Newton, Suzaku and NuSTAR, much work remains to be done. In particular, we must refine the precision and accuracy of the spin measurements we do have and expand the population of AGN with measured SMBH spins. Such an endeavor requires, principally, an instrument with enhanced collecting area relative to current observatories, particularly in the 2-10 keV range, as well as superb spectral and spatial resolution. I will discuss how the X-ray Surveyor concept could contribute to SMBH spin research, especially in terms of revealing fainter populations of AGN than have previously been able to be utilized for this study.
- Publication:
-
X-Ray Vision Workshop: Probing the Universe in Depth and Detail with the X-Ray Surveyor
- Pub Date:
- October 2015
- DOI:
- 10.5281/zenodo.47662
- Bibcode:
- 2015xrvw.confE..20B
- Keywords:
-
- Supermassive black holes;
- Active Galactic nuclei;
- Zenodo community xrayvision