The Reflection Component from Cygnus X-1 in the Soft State Measured by NuSTAR and Suzaku
Abstract
The black hole binary Cygnus X-1 was observed in late 2012 with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and Suzaku, providing spectral coverage over the ~1-300 keV range. The source was in the soft state with a multi-temperature blackbody, power law, and reflection components along with absorption from highly ionized material in the system. The high throughput of NuSTAR allows for a very high quality measurement of the complex iron line region as well as the rest of the reflection component. The iron line is clearly broadened and is well described by a relativistic blurring model, providing an opportunity to constrain the black hole spin. Although the spin constraint depends somewhat on which continuum model is used, we obtain a * > 0.83 for all models that provide a good description of the spectrum. However, none of our spectral fits give a disk inclination that is consistent with the most recently reported binary values for Cyg X-1. This may indicate that there is a >13° misalignment between the orbital plane and the inner accretion disk (i.e., a warped accretion disk) or that there is missing physics in the spectral models.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- January 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0004-637X/780/1/78
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1310.3830
- Bibcode:
- 2014ApJ...780...78T
- Keywords:
-
- accretion;
- accretion disks;
- black hole physics;
- stars: individual: Cygnus X-1;
- X-rays: general;
- X-rays: stars;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- Accepted by ApJ, 10 pages, 6 figures