THE SPIN OF THE SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE IN NGC 3783

Abstract

The Suzaku AGN Spin Survey is designed to determine the supermassive black\nhole spin in six nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) via deep Suzaku stares,\nthereby giving us our first glimpse of the local black hole spin distribution.\nHere, we present an analysis of the first target to be studied under the\nauspices of this Key Project, the Seyfert galaxy NGC 3783. Despite complexity\nin the spectrum arising from a multi-component warm absorber, we detect and\nstudy relativistic reflection from the inner accretion disk. Assuming that the\nX-ray reflection is from the surface of a flat disk around a Kerr black hole,\nand that no X-ray reflection occurs within the general relativistic radius of\nmarginal stability, we determine a lower limit on the black hole spin of a >\n0.88 (99% confidence). We examine the robustness of this result to the\nassumption of the analysis, and present a brief discussion of spin-related\nselection biases that might affect flux-limited samples of AGN.\n