Implications of IXPE's Polarization Results of BH X-Ray Binaries
: Rodrigues Cavero Nicole, Krawczynski Henric, Dovčiak Michal, Muleri Fabio, Veledina Alexandra, Podgorný Jakub, Ratheesh Ajay, Accreting Stellar-Mass BH Working Group
: High Energy Astrophysics Division Meetings
Publisher: American Institute of Physics
: Waikōloa, Hawaiʻi
: 2023
: Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society
: HEAD20 Abstracts : The 20th Meeting of the High Energy Astrophysics Division
: Bulletin of the AAS
: 55
: 4
: 0002-7537
: 2330-9458
: https://baas.aas.org/pub/2023n4i207p05/release/1
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/387034773
X-ray polarimetry offers a unique insight into black hole X-ray binary systems that are found predominantly in the high soft (HSS) and low hard (LHS) states. The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) recently observed Cygnus X-1 and Cygnus X-3 in the LHS where black hole coronal emission tends to dominate. The polarization signature of this coronal Comptonized emission can be used to constrain the geometry of the corona, its viewing angle, and the origin of soft X-ray seed photons. IXPE also observed 4U1630-47 and LMC X-1 in the HSS where the polarization of thermal emission from the optically thick accretion disk can be used to rectify the degeneracies between black hole mass, spin, and inclination. We report on the physical consequences of these first IXPE observations and the science driven by this new chapter in X-ray polarimetry.