Tests of the Kerr Hypothesis with MAXI J1803-298 Using Different RELXILL_NK Flavors

Abstract

Abstract Iron line spectroscopy has been one of the leading methods not only for measuring the spins of accreting black holes but also for testing fundamental physics. Basing on such a method, we present an analysis of a data set observed simultaneously by NuSTAR and NICER for the black hole binary candidate MAXI J1803-298, which shows prominent relativistic reflection features. Various relxill_nk flavors are utilized to test the Kerr black hole hypothesis. The results obtained from our analysis provide stringent constraints on Johannsen deformation parameter α 13 with the highest precise to date, namely α 13 = 0.023 − 0.038 + 0.071 from relxillD_nk and α 13 = 0.006 − 0.022 + 0.045 from relxillion_nk, respectively, in 3σ credible lever, where the Johannsen metric reduces to the Kerr metric when α 13 vanishes. Furthermore, we investigate the best model fit results using Akaike information criterion and assess its systematic uncertainties.