A Survey of Spin and Relativistic Phenomena in AGN

Relativistically broadened spectral features have now been seen in the X-ray spectra of many active galactic nuclei (AGN) and Galactic Black Hole Binaries (GBHBs). Investigations of these features allow us to probe the physics of the innermost accretion flow, the geometry of the still-mysterious hard X-ray source, and the spacetime metric of the black hole itself. We conducted a Suzaku Key Project (AO4-AO6) that, through very deep observations, has enabled detailed studies of strong gravitational physics in five AGN. This has been the first observational census of supermassive black hole (SMBH) spin ever conducted, and acts as a crucial pathfinder study for one of the principal scientific goals of the Astro-H and ATHENA missions. In addition to elucidating the role of black hole spin as an energy source in astrophysics, these data have given us our first glimpse at the spin distribution of the local SMBH population. Our deep Suzaku observations have yielded spin constraints for three of the five AGN studied, all of which show medium-to-high prograde spin values.