Probing the near-horizon region of Cygnus X-1 with Suzaku and NuSTAR

Abstract

Astrophysical black holes are ideal laboratories for testing Einstein's theory of general relativity in the strong field regime. In this manuscript, we present an analysis of Suzaku and NuSTAR spectra of the black hole binary Cygnus X-1 using RELXILL_NK. Unlike our previous study on Cygnus X-1 with NuSTAR data, here we are able to constrain the Johannsen deformation parameter ${\alpha }_{13}$. However, despite the high energy resolution near the iron line provided by Suzaku, our constraints on the Kerr metric from Cygnus X-1 are not very stringent in comparison with those that have been obtained from other sources, confirming that Cygnus X-1 is quite a complicated source.

16 pages, 9 figures. v2: refereed version

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Cited by in corpus (6)

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• Testing General Relativity with black hole X-ray data: a progress report
• Constraining the Konoplya-Rezzolla-Zhidenko deformation parameters II: limits from stellar-mass black hole X-ray data
• Testing Gravity with Black Hole X-Ray Data
• Tests of General Relativity using black hole X-ray data
• Assessing systematic uncertainties from spectral re-analysis of Cyg X-1 with different coronal geometries