Evidence for relativistic features in the X‐ray spectrum of Mrk 335

We present an analysis of hard X‐ray features in the spectrum of the bright Sy 1 galaxy Mrk 335 observed by the XMM–Newton satellite. Our analysis confirms the presence of a broad, ionized Fe Kα emission line in the spectrum, first found by Gondoin et al. The broad line can be modelled successfully by relativistic accretion disc reflection models. This interpretation is unusually robust in the case of Mrk 335 because of the lack of any ionized (‘warm’) absorber and the absence a clear narrow core to the line. Partial covering by neutral gas cannot, however, be ruled out statistically as the origin of the broad residuals. Regardless of the underlying continuum we report, for the first time in this source, the detection of a narrow absorption feature at the rest frame energy of ∼5.9 keV. If the feature is identified with a resonance absorption line of iron in a highly ionized medium, the redshift of the line corresponds to an inflow velocity of ∼0.11–0.15 c . We present a simple model for the inflow, accounting approximately for relativistic and radiation pressure effects, and use Monte Carlo methods to compute synthetic spectra for qualitative comparison with the data. This modelling shows that the absorption feature can plausibly be reproduced by infalling gas providing that the feature is identified with Fe  xxvi . We require the inflowing gas to extend over a limited range of radii at a few tens of r g to match the observed feature. The mass accretion rate in the flow corresponds to 60 per cent of the Eddington limit, in remarkable agreement with the observed rate. The narrowness of the absorption line tends to argue against a purely gravitational origin for the redshift of the line, but given the current data quality we stress that such an interpretation cannot be ruled out.