The Similarity of Broad Iron Lines in X-ray Binaries and Active Galactic
  Nuclei
  We have compared the 2001 XMM-Newton spectra of the stellar mass black hole
binary XTE J1650-500 and the active galaxy MGC-6-30-15, focusing on the broad,
excess emission features at ~4--7 keV displayed by both sources. Such features
are frequently observed in both low mass X-ray binaries and active galactic
nuclei. For the former case it is generally accepted that the excess arises due
to iron emission, but there is some controversy over whether their width is
partially enhanced by instrumental processes, and hence also over the intrinsic
broadening mechanism. Meanwhile, in the latter case, the origin of this feature
is still subject to debate; physically motivated reflection and absorption
interpretations are both able to reproduce the observed spectra. In this work
we make use of the contemporaneous BeppoSAX data to demonstrate that the
breadth of the excess observed in XTE J1650-500 is astrophysical rather than
instrumental, and proceed to highlight the similarity of the excesses present
in this source and MGC-6-30-15. Both optically thick accretion discs and
optically thin coronae, which in combination naturally give rise to
relativistically-broadened iron lines when the disc extends close to the black
hole, are commonly observed in both class of object. The simplest solution is
that the broad emission features present arise from a common process, which we
argue must be reflection from the inner regions of an accretion disc around a
rapidly rotating black hole; for XTE J1650-500 we find spin constraints of 0.84
< a* < 0.98 at the 90 per cent confidence level. Other interpretations proposed
for AGN add potentially unnecessary complexities to the theoretical framework
of accretion in strong gravity.
