Soft X-ray Excesses and X-ray Line Variability in Cygnus X-3
Abstract
Cygnus X-3 is an X-ray binary (XRB) system containing a stellar-mass compact object, most likely a black hole, and a Wolf-Rayet companion star, which produces collimated, relativistic jets, placing it in the sub-class of XRBs known as microquasars. During a Swift/XRT monitoring program of Cygnus X-3, a soft X-ray excess (below 1 keV) was observed at certain states and phases of activity. This soft excess appears to be similar to the variable soft emission observed in Seyfert galaxies. The presence of these features in Cygnus X-3 would argue for a greater support of the black-hole nature of the compact object and serve to better highlight the similarities of microquasars and AGN. We present the results of our investigations of these soft excesses, as well as the variations of the X-ray Fe line region (6.4-7.0 keV) as a function of the state activity and orbital phase.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #224
- Pub Date:
- June 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014AAS...22421922V