Polarized x-rays constrain the disk-jet geometry in the black hole x-ray binary Cygnus X-1

Henric Krawczynski¹, Fabio Muleri², Michal Dovčiak³, Alexandra Veledina^{4

5

6}, Nicole Rodriguez Cavero¹, Jiri Svoboda³, Adam Ingram⁷, Giorgio Matt⁸, Javier A Garcia⁹, Vladislav Loktev⁴, Michela Negro^{10

11

12}, Juri Poutanen^{4

6}, Takao Kitaguchi¹³, Jakub Podgorný^{3

14

15}, John Rankin², Wenda Zhang¹⁶, Andrei Berdyugin⁴, Svetlana V Berdyugina^{17

18

19}, Stefano Bianchi⁸, Dmitry Blinov^{20

21}, Fiamma Capitanio², Niccolò Di Lalla²², Paul Draghis²³, Sergio Fabiani², Masato Kagitani²⁴, Vadim Kravtsov⁴, Sebastian Kiehlmann^{20

21}, Luca Latronico²⁵, Alexander A Lutovinov⁶, Nikos Mandarakas^{20

21}, Frédéric Marin¹⁴, Andrea Marinucci²⁶, Jon M Miller²³, Tsunefumi Mizuno²⁷, Sergey V Molkov⁶, Nicola Omodei²², Pierre-Olivier Petrucci²⁸, Ajay Ratheesh², Takeshi Sakanoi²⁴, Andrei N Semena⁶, Raphael Skalidis^{20

21}, Paolo Soffitta², Allyn F Tennant²⁹, Phillipp Thalhammer³⁰, Francesco Tombesi^{31

32

33}, Martin C Weisskopf²⁹, Joern Wilms³⁰, Sixuan Zhang²⁷, Iván Agudo³⁴, Lucio A Antonelli^{35

36}, Matteo Bachetti³⁷, Luca Baldini^{38

39}, Wayne H Baumgartner²⁹, Ronaldo Bellazzini³⁸, Stephen D Bongiorno²⁹, Raffaella Bonino^{25

40}, Alessandro Brez³⁸, Niccolò Bucciantini^{41

42

43}, Simone Castellano³⁸, Elisabetta Cavazzuti²⁶, Stefano Ciprini^{32

36}, Enrico Costa², Alessandra De Rosa², Ettore Del Monte², Laura Di Gesu²⁶, Alessandro Di Marco², Immacolata Donnarumma²⁶, Victor Doroshenko^{6

44}, Steven R Ehlert²⁹, Teruaki Enoto¹³, Yuri Evangelista², Riccardo Ferrazzoli², Shuichi Gunji⁴⁵, Kiyoshi Hayashida⁴⁶, Jeremy Heyl⁴⁷, Wataru Iwakiri⁴⁸, Svetlana G Jorstad^{49

50}, Vladimir Karas³, Jeffery J Kolodziejczak²⁹, Fabio La Monaca², Ioannis Liodakis⁵¹, Simone Maldera²⁵, Alberto Manfreda³⁸, Alan P Marscher⁴⁹, Herman L Marshall⁵², Ikuyuki Mitsuishi⁵³, Chi-Yung Ng⁵⁴, Stephen L O'Dell²⁹, Chiara Oppedisano²⁵, Alessandro Papitto³⁵, George G Pavlov⁵⁵, Abel L Peirson²², Matteo Perri^{35

36}, Melissa Pesce-Rollins³⁸, Maura Pilia³⁷, Andrea Possenti³⁷, Simonetta Puccetti³⁶, Brian D Ramsey²⁹, Roger W Romani²², Carmelo Sgrò³⁸, Patrick Slane⁵⁶, Gloria Spandre³⁸, Toru Tamagawa¹⁵, Fabrizio Tavecchio⁵⁷, Roberto Taverna⁵⁸, Yuzuru Tawara⁵³, Nicholas E Thomas²⁹, Alessio Trois³⁷, Sergey Tsygankov^{4

6}, Roberto Turolla^{58

59}, Jacco Vink⁶⁰, Kinwah Wu⁵⁹, Fei Xie^{2

61}, Silvia Zane⁵⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
² Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), 00133 Roma, Italy.
³ Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 14100 Praha 4, Czech Republic.
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, 20014 University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
⁵ Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (Nordita), Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH) Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
⁶ Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 117997, Russia.
⁷ School of Mathematics, Statistics, and Physics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK.
⁸ Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, 00146 Roma, Italy.
⁹ Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
¹⁰ Center for Space Sciences and Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.
¹¹ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
¹² Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology, NASA-GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
¹³ Rikagaku Kenkyūjyo (RIKEN) Cluster for Pioneering Research, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
¹⁴ Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg, Université de Strasbourg, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7550, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
¹⁵ Astronomical Institute, Charles University, 18000 Prague, Czech Republic.
¹⁶ National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
¹⁷ Leibniz-Institut für Sonnenphysik, 79104 Freiburg, Germany.
¹⁸ Istituto Ricerche Solari (IRSOL) Aldo e Cele Daccò, Faculty of Informatics, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6605 Locarno, Switzerland.
¹⁹ Euler Institute, Faculty of Informatics, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6962 Lugano, Switzerland.
²⁰ Institute of Astrophysics, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, 71110 Heraklion, Greece.
²¹ Department of Physics, University of Crete, 70013 Heraklion, Greece.
²² Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
²³ Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
²⁴ School of Sciences, Tohoku University, Aoba-ku, 980-8578 Sendai, Japan.
²⁵ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino, 10125 Torino, Italy.
²⁶ Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), 00133 Roma, Italy.
²⁷ Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University, 1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan.
²⁸ Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG), Université Grenoble Alpes, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 38000 Grenoble, France.
²⁹ NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812, USA.
³⁰ Dr. Karl Remeis Observatory, Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 96049 Bamberg, Germany.
³¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata," 00133 Roma, Italy.
³² Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma "Tor Vergata," 00133 Roma, Italy.
³³ Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
³⁴ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, 18008 Granada, Spain.
³⁵ INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, 00078 Monte Porzio Catone, Roma, Italy.
³⁶ Space Science Data Center, ASI, 00133 Roma, Italy.
³⁷ INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, 09047 Selargius, Cagliari, Italy.
³⁸ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy.
³⁹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy.
⁴⁰ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Torino, 10125 Torino, Italy.
⁴¹ INAF Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, 50125 Firenze, Italy.
⁴² Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy.
⁴³ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Firenze, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy.
⁴⁴ Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik, Universität Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
⁴⁵ Department of Physics, Yamagata University, 1-4-12 Kojirakawa-machi, Yamagata-shi 990-8560, Japan.
⁴⁶ Department of Earth and Space Science, Osaka University, 1-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
⁴⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
⁴⁸ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University, 1-13-27 Kasuga, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-8551, Japan.
⁴⁹ Institute for Astrophysical Research, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
⁵⁰ Department of Astrophysics, St. Petersburg State University, Petrodvoretz, 198504 St. Petersburg, Russia.
⁵¹ Finnish Centre for Astronomy with the European Southern Observatory (ESO), 20014 University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
⁵² Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
⁵³ Division of Particle and Astrophysical Science, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8602, Japan.
⁵⁴ Department of Physics, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
⁵⁵ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
⁵⁶ Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
⁵⁷ INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, 23807 Merate, Lecco, Italy.
⁵⁸ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università degli Studi di Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy.
⁵⁹ Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK.
⁶⁰ Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, 1098 XH Amsterdam, Netherlands.
⁶¹ Guangxi Key Laboratory for Relativistic Astrophysics, School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China.

PMID: 36356134
DOI: 10.1126/science.add5399

Polarized x-rays constrain the disk-jet geometry in the black hole x-ray binary Cygnus X-1

Henric Krawczynski et al. Science. 2022.

. 2022 Nov 11;378(6620):650-654.

doi: 10.1126/science.add5399. Epub 2022 Nov 3.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
² Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), 00133 Roma, Italy.
³ Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 14100 Praha 4, Czech Republic.
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, 20014 University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
⁵ Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (Nordita), Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH) Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
⁶ Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 117997, Russia.
⁷ School of Mathematics, Statistics, and Physics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK.
⁸ Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, 00146 Roma, Italy.
⁹ Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
¹⁰ Center for Space Sciences and Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.
¹¹ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
¹² Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology, NASA-GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
¹³ Rikagaku Kenkyūjyo (RIKEN) Cluster for Pioneering Research, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
¹⁴ Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg, Université de Strasbourg, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7550, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
¹⁵ Astronomical Institute, Charles University, 18000 Prague, Czech Republic.
¹⁶ National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
¹⁷ Leibniz-Institut für Sonnenphysik, 79104 Freiburg, Germany.
¹⁸ Istituto Ricerche Solari (IRSOL) Aldo e Cele Daccò, Faculty of Informatics, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6605 Locarno, Switzerland.
¹⁹ Euler Institute, Faculty of Informatics, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6962 Lugano, Switzerland.
²⁰ Institute of Astrophysics, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, 71110 Heraklion, Greece.
²¹ Department of Physics, University of Crete, 70013 Heraklion, Greece.
²² Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
²³ Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
²⁴ School of Sciences, Tohoku University, Aoba-ku, 980-8578 Sendai, Japan.
²⁵ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino, 10125 Torino, Italy.
²⁶ Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), 00133 Roma, Italy.
²⁷ Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University, 1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan.
²⁸ Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG), Université Grenoble Alpes, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 38000 Grenoble, France.
²⁹ NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812, USA.
³⁰ Dr. Karl Remeis Observatory, Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 96049 Bamberg, Germany.
³¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata," 00133 Roma, Italy.
³² Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma "Tor Vergata," 00133 Roma, Italy.
³³ Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
³⁴ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, 18008 Granada, Spain.
³⁵ INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, 00078 Monte Porzio Catone, Roma, Italy.
³⁶ Space Science Data Center, ASI, 00133 Roma, Italy.
³⁷ INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, 09047 Selargius, Cagliari, Italy.
³⁸ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy.
³⁹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy.
⁴⁰ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Torino, 10125 Torino, Italy.
⁴¹ INAF Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, 50125 Firenze, Italy.
⁴² Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy.
⁴³ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Firenze, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy.
⁴⁴ Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik, Universität Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
⁴⁵ Department of Physics, Yamagata University, 1-4-12 Kojirakawa-machi, Yamagata-shi 990-8560, Japan.
⁴⁶ Department of Earth and Space Science, Osaka University, 1-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
⁴⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
⁴⁸ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University, 1-13-27 Kasuga, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-8551, Japan.
⁴⁹ Institute for Astrophysical Research, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
⁵⁰ Department of Astrophysics, St. Petersburg State University, Petrodvoretz, 198504 St. Petersburg, Russia.
⁵¹ Finnish Centre for Astronomy with the European Southern Observatory (ESO), 20014 University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
⁵² Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
⁵³ Division of Particle and Astrophysical Science, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8602, Japan.
⁵⁴ Department of Physics, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
⁵⁵ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
⁵⁶ Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
⁵⁷ INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, 23807 Merate, Lecco, Italy.
⁵⁸ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università degli Studi di Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy.
⁵⁹ Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK.
⁶⁰ Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, 1098 XH Amsterdam, Netherlands.
⁶¹ Guangxi Key Laboratory for Relativistic Astrophysics, School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China.

PMID: 36356134
DOI: 10.1126/science.add5399

Abstract

A black hole x-ray binary (XRB) system forms when gas is stripped from a normal star and accretes onto a black hole, which heats the gas sufficiently to emit x-rays. We report a polarimetric observation of the XRB Cygnus X-1 using the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. The electric field position angle aligns with the outflowing jet, indicating that the jet is launched from the inner x-ray-emitting region. The polarization degree is 4.01 ± 0.20% at 2 to 8 kiloelectronvolts, implying that the accretion disk is viewed closer to edge-on than the binary orbit. These observations reveal that hot x-ray-emitting plasma is spatially extended in a plane perpendicular to, not parallel to, the jet axis.

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Polarized x-rays constrain the disk-jet geometry in the black hole x-ray binary Cygnus X-1

Affiliations

Polarized x-rays constrain the disk-jet geometry in the black hole x-ray binary Cygnus X-1

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

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LinkOut - more resources

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