A systematic look at the very high and low/hard state of GX 339−4: constraining the black hole spin with a new reflection model

Abstract

We present a systematic study of GX 339−4 in both its very high and low hard states from simultaneous observations made with XMM–Newton and RXTE in 2002 and 2004. The X-ray spectra of both these extreme states exhibit strong reflection signatures, with a broad, skewed Fe KΑ line clearly visible above the continuum. Using a newly developed, self-consistent reflection model which implicitly includes the blackbody radiation of the disc as well as the effect of Comptonization, blurred with a relativistic line function, we were able to infer the spin parameter of GX 339−4 to be 0.935 ± 0.01 (statistical) ±0.01 (systematic) at 90 per cent confidence. We find that both states are consistent with an ionized thin accretion disc extending to the innermost stable circular orbit around the rapidly spinning black hole.