USING THE X-RAY DUST SCATTERING HALO OF CYGNUS X-1 TO DETERMINE DISTANCE AND DUST DISTRIBUTIONS
Name
Xiang-2011-USING THE X-RAY DUST.pdf
Size
586.59 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
e2332aed7cd46a70e5a502fa55048b03
Author(s)
Xiang, Jingen
Lee, Julia C.
Nowak, Michael A.
Wilms, Jörn
Date Issued
August 2011
Journal
Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Citation
Xiang, Jingen, Julia C. Lee, Michael A. Nowak, and Jörn Wilms. “USING THE X-RAY DUST SCATTERING HALO OF CYGNUS X-1 TO DETERMINE DISTANCE AND DUST DISTRIBUTIONS.” The Astrophysical Journal 738, no. 1 (August 12, 2011): 78. © 2011 The American Astronomical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We present a detailed study of the X-ray dust scattering halo of the black hole candidate Cygnus X-1 based on two Chandra High Energy Transmission Gratings Spectrometer observations. Using 18 different dust models, including one modified by us (eponymously dubbed XLNW), we probe the interstellar medium between us and this source. A consistent description of the cloud properties along the line of sight (LOS) that describes at the same time the halo radial profile, the halo light curves, and the column density from source spectroscopy is best achieved with a small subset of these models. Combining the studies of the halo radial profile and the halo light curves, we favor a geometric distance to Cygnus X-1 of d = 1.81 ± 0.09 kpc. Our study also shows that there is a dense cloud, which contributes ~50% of the dust grains along the LOS to Cygnus X-1, located at ~1.6 kpc from us. The remainder of the dust along the LOS is close to the black hole binary.
MIT Department
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/738/1/78
