Toward Precision Tests of General Relativity with Black Hole X-Ray Reflection Spectroscopy

Abstract

Astrophysical black hole systems are the ideal laboratories for testing Einstein's theory of gravity in the strong field regime. We have recently developed a framework that uses the reflection spectrum of black hole systems to perform precision tests of general relativity by testing the Kerr black hole hypothesis. In this paper, we analyze XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations of the supermassive black hole in the Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG–06–30–15 with our disk reflection model. We consider the Johannsen metric with the deformation parameters α_(13) and α_(22), which quantify deviations from the Kerr metric. For α_(22) = 0, we obtain the black hole spin 0.928 < a* < 0.983 and -0.44 < α_(13) < 0.15. For α_(13) = 0, we obtain 0.885 < a* < 0.987 and -0.12 < α_(22) < 1.05 . The Kerr solution is recovered for α_(13) = α_(22) = 0. Thus, our results include the Kerr solution within statistical uncertainties. Systematic uncertainties are difficult to account for, and we discuss some issues in this regard.