Gamma-ray emission of Cygnus X-1
Abstract
Observations of gamma-ray emission in the 0.4-6 MeV region from Cygnus X-1 have been reported by several groups during the last decade. The 1979 HEAO 3 observation of a broad variable feature at ~1 MeV has been interpreted as strong evidence for Wien and annihilation radiation produced in a hot (400 keV), pair dominated spherical cloud (r~250 km) in the innermost region of the accretion disk surrounding a black hole. The temporal and spectral behavior of the 0.05-10 MeV intensity observed by HEAO 3 during its ~170 days exposure to the source suggested a more complex emission mechanism than that envisaged in the earlier bimodal accretion model. In this paper, I review the HEAO 3 results and summarize other gamma-ray observations in the 0.05-10 MeV range.
- Publication:
-
Nuclear Spectroscopy of Astrophysical Sources
- Pub Date:
- September 1988
- DOI:
- 10.1063/1.37225
- Bibcode:
- 1988AIPC..170..315L
- Keywords:
-
- 98.70.Rz;
- 97.80.Jp;
- gamma-ray sources;
- gamma-ray bursts;
- X-ray binaries