Narrow Components within the Fe Kalpha Profile of NGC 3516: Evidence for the Importance of General Relativistic Effects?

Abstract

We present results from a simultaneous Chandra HETG and XMM-Newton observation of NGC 3516. We find evidence for several narrow components of Fe Kalpha along with a broad line. We consider the possibility that the lines arise in an blob of material ejected from the nucleus with velocity ~0.25c. We also consider an origin in a neutral accretion disk, suffering enhanced illumination at 35 and 175 gravitational radii, perhaps due to magnetic reconnection. The presence of these narrow features indicates there is no Comptonizing region along the line-of-sight to the nucleus. This in turn is compelling support for the hypothesis that broad Fe Kalpha components are, in general, produced by strong gravity.

12 pages, 3 color figures. LaTeX with postscript figures. Resubmitted June 7 2002, to Astrophysical Journal Letters