Inferring the Inclination of a Black Hole Accretion Disk from Observations of its Polarized Continuum Radiation

Abstract

Spin parameters of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries are currently being estimated by fitting the X-ray continuum spectra of their accretion disk emission. For this method, it is necessary to know the inclination of the X-ray-producing inner region of the disk. Since the inner disk is expected to be oriented perpendicular to the spin axis of the hole, the usual practice is to assume that the black hole spin is aligned with the orbital angular momentum vector of the binary, and to estimate the inclination of the latter from ellipsoidal modulations in the light curve of the secondary star. We show that the inclination of the disk can be inferred directly if we have both spectral and polarization information on the disk radiation. The predicted degree of polarization varies from 0% to 5% as the disk inclination changes from face-on to edge-on. With current X-ray polarimetric techniques the polarization degree of a typical bright X-ray binary could be measured to an accuracy of 0.1% by observing the source for about 10 days. Such a measurement would constrain the disk inclination to within a degree or two and would significantly improve the reliability of black hole spin estimates. In addition, it would provide new information on the tilt between the black hole spin axis and the orbital rotation axis of the binary, which would constrain any velocity kicks experienced by stellar-mass black holes during their formation.

46 pages, 8 figures, ApJ in press

References in corpus (21)

• X-ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries
• The Spin of the Near-Extreme Kerr Black Hole GRS 1915+105
• Constraining Black Hole Spin Via X-ray Spectroscopy
• Relativistic X-ray Lines from the Inner Accretion Disks Around Black Holes
• Global General Relativistic MHD Simulation of a Tilted Black-Hole Accretion Disk
• The Influence of Magnetic Field Geometry on the Evolution of Black Hole Accretion Flows: Similar Disks, Drastically Different Jets
• A 15.65 solar mass black hole in an eclipsing binary in the nearby spiral galaxy Messier 33
• Broad iron K-alpha emission lines as a diagnostic of black hole spin
• Testing Accretion Disk Theory in Black Hole X-ray Binaries
• Three-Dimensional Simulations of Magnetized Thin Accretion Disks around Black Holes: Stress in the Plunging Region
• On IC 10 X-1, the Most Massive Known Stellar-Mass Black Hole
• A Grid of Relativistic, non-LTE Accretion Disk Models for Spectral Fitting of Black Hole Binaries
• The evolution of misaligned accretion discs and spinning black holes
• Thermal disc emission from a rotating black hole: X-ray polarization signatures
• Precise Measurement of the Spin Parameter of the Stellar-Mass Black Hole M33 X-7
• Initial Measurements of Black Hole Spin in GX 339-4 from Suzaku Spectroscopy
• Late-Time Convection in the Collapse of a 23 Solar Mass Star
• Viscous Torque and Dissipation in the Inner Region of a Thin Accretion Disk: Implications for Measuring Black Hole Spin
• Alignment and Precession of a Black Hole with a Warped Accretion Disc
• Polarization signatures of strong gravity in AGN accretion discs
• Estimating the Spins of Stellar-Mass Black Holes by Fitting Their Continuum Spectra

Cited by in corpus (80)

• Foundations of Black Hole Accretion Disk Theory
• Shadow of a rotating braneworld black hole
• Black Hole Spin via Continuum Fitting and the Role of Spin in Powering Transient Jets
• Testing black hole candidates with electromagnetic radiation
• Null geodesics and shadow of a rotating black hole in extended Chern-Simons modified gravity
• The Extreme Spin of the Black Hole in Cygnus X-1
• Measuring the Spins of Accreting Black Holes
• Shadow of a Kaluza-Klein rotating dilaton black hole
• The Masses and Spins of Neutron Stars and Stellar-Mass Black Holes
• X-ray Polarization from Accreting Black Holes: II. The Thermal State
• X-ray Polarization from Accreting Black Holes: Coronal Emission
• Constraining the quadrupole moment of stellar-mass black-hole candidates with the continuum fitting method
• Polarized x-rays constrain the disk-jet geometry in the black hole x-ray binary Cygnus X-1
• A Determination of the Spin of the Black Hole Primary in LMC X-1
• Measuring Black Hole Spin by the Continuum-Fitting Method: Effect of Deviations from the Novikov-Thorne Disc Model
• Universal Polarimetric Signatures of the Black Hole Photon Ring
• XIPE: the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer
• The Cool Accretion Disk in ESO 243-49 HLX-1: Further Evidence of an Intermediate Mass Black Hole
• The Eye of the Storm: Light from the Inner Plunging Region of Black Hole Accretion Discs
• Testing the no-hair theorem with the continuum-fitting and the iron line methods: a short review
• The Spin of the Black Hole in the Soft X-ray Transient A0620--00
• Tests of General Relativity in the Strong Gravity Regime Based on X-Ray Spectropolarimetric Observations of Black Holes in X-Ray Binaries
• The Polarized Image of a Synchrotron Emitting Ring of Gas Orbiting a Black Hole
• Polarized Image of Equatorial Emission in the Kerr Geometry
• Radiative efficiency and thermal spectrum of accretion onto Schwarzschild black holes
• Light bending scenario for accreting black holes in X-ray polarimetry
• Constraining the size of the corona with fully relativistic calculations of spectra of extended corona. I - the Monte Carlo radiative transfer code
• Black Hole Binaries and Microquasars
• X-Ray Polarimetry with the Polarization Spectroscopic Telescope Array (PolSTAR)
• The X-ray Polarization of the Accretion Disk Coronae of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Thin Accretion Disk onto slowly rotating black holes in Einstein-Æther theory
• Disk Emission from Magneto-hydrodynamic Simulations of Spinning Black Holes
• The Effects of Magnetic Fields and Inhomogeneities on Accretion Disk Spectra and Polarization
• Roche Accretion of stars close to massive black holes
• Adaptive Analytical Ray Tracing of Black Hole Photon Rings
• Polarized image of a rotating black hole in Scalar-Tensor-Vector-Gravity theory
• A deep X-ray view of the bare AGN Ark120. V. Spin determination from disc-Comptonisation efficiency method
• No Evidence for Bardeen-Petterson Alignment in GRMHD Simulations and Semi-Analytic Models of Moderately Thin, Prograde, Tilted Accretion Disks
• Analytical techniques for polarimetric imaging of accretion flows in Schwarzschild metric
• Towards a complete description of spectra and polarization of black hole accretion disks: albedo profiles and returning radiation
• Difficulties of Quantitative Tests of the Kerr-Hypothesis with X-Ray Observations of Mass Accreting Black Holes
• X-ray Polarimetry: a new window on the high energy sky
• POLARIX: a pathfinder mission of X-ray polarimetry
• Testing wind as an explanation for the spin problem in the continuum-fitting method
• Untangling Optical Emissions of the Jet and Accretion Disk in the Flat-Spectrum Radio Quasar 3C 273 with Reverberation Mapping Data
• Dense Matter in Neutron Stars with eXTP
• Testing General Relativity's No-Hair Theorem with X-Ray Observations of Black Holes
• Polarized image of an equatorial emitting ring around a 4D Gauss-Bonnet black hole
• Dips and eclipses in the X-ray binary Swift J1858.6-0814 observed with NICER
• Polarized image of a rotating black hole surrounded by a cold dark matter halo
• Spectral and polarization properties of reflected X-ray emission from black hole accretion discs
• Effects of Kerr Strong Gravity on Quasar X-ray Microlensing
• Algorithms And Programs For Strong Gravitational Lensing In Kerr Space-time Including Polarization
• Polarized Images of Synchrotron Radiations in Curved Spacetime
• A Polarimetric Method for Measuring Black Hole Masses in Active Galactic Nuclei
• X-ray Polarimetry as a Tool to Measure the Black Hole Spin in Microquasars: Simulations of IXPE Capabilities
• Polarization Whorls from M87* at the Event Horizon Telescope
• Polarized radiation from the spreading layer of the weakly magnetized neutron stars
• X-ray spectropolarimetric measurements of the Kerr metric
• Spectral and polarization properties of reflected X-ray emission from black-hole accretion discs for a distant observer: the lamp-post model
• LAMP: a micro-satellite based soft X-ray polarimeter for astrophysics
• Studies of the Origin of High-Frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillations of Mass Accreting Black Holes in X-ray Binaries with Next-Generation X-ray Telescopes
• Astrometric Reverberation Mapping
• Investigating the X-ray polarization of lamp-post coronae in BHXRB
• Inclination-Dependent AGN Flux Profiles From Strong Lensing of the Kerr Space-Time
• X-ray spectropolarimetric signature of a warped disk around a stellar-mass black hole
• Instrumentation and Future Missions in the Upcoming Era of X-Ray Polarimetry
• Variability of X-ray polarization of Cyg X-1
• The Spin of a Newborn Black Hole: Swift J1728.9-3613
• Accurate analytical modeling of light rays in spherically symmetric spacetimes: Applications in the study of black hole accretion disks and polarimetry
• A New Fast Monte Carlo Code for Solving Radiative Transfer Equations based on Neumann Solution
• Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
• Prospect of polarisation measurements from black hole binaries in their thermal state with a scattering polarimeter
• The Relative Importance of Faraday Rotation and QED Birefringence for the Linear Polarization of X-rays from Mass Accreting Black Holes
• Polarization of broad line emission from AGNs with determined virial factors
• Tests of General Relativity using black hole X-ray data
• Investigating the interaction of a Cosmic String with an Accreting Black Hole
• Spectro-polarimetric study to constrain accretion-ejection properties of MCG-5-23-16 using IXPE and NuSTAR observations
• A Transmissive X-ray Polarimeter Design For Hard X-ray Focusing Telescopes
• Measuring black hole spin through gravitational lensing of pulsars