Studying the presence of magnetic fields in a sample of high-mass X-ray binaries
Abstract
Previous circular polarization observations obtained with the ESO FOcal Reducer low dispersion spectrograpgh at the VLT in 2007-2008 revealed the presence of a weak longitudinal magnetic field on the surface of the optical component of the X-ray binary Cyg X-1, which contains a black hole and an O9.7Iab supergiant on a 5.6 d orbit. In this contribution we report on recently acquired FORS 2 spectropolarimetric observations of Cyg X-1 along with measurements of a few additional high-mass X-ray binaries.
- Publication:
-
High-mass X-ray Binaries: Illuminating the Passage from Massive Binaries to Merging Compact Objects
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S1743921318007585
- Bibcode:
- 2019IAUS..346...40H
- Keywords:
-
- stars: magnetic fields;
- stars: individual (BP Cru;
- Cyg X-1;
- Vela X-1;
- LS 5039);
- (stars:) supergiants;
- (stars:) binaries: general;
- X-rays: stars