Probing the precession of the inner accretion disk in Cygnus X-1

Abstract

We show that changes in the orientation of the inner accretion disk of Cygnus X-1 affect the shape of the broad Fe K$\alpha$ emission line emitted from this object, in such a way that eV-level spectral resolution observations (such as those that will be carried out by the {\it ASTRO-E2} satellite) can be used to analyze the dynamics of the disk. We here present a potential diagnostic tool, supported by numerical simulations, by which a few observations of Cygnus X-1, separated in time, can determine whether its accretion disk actually precesses, and if so, determine its period and precession angle. This approach could also be used for similar studies in other microquasar systems.

arXiv commentTo appear in The Astrophysics Journal

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Black hole accretion disks in the canonical low-hard state
• Photon-Photon Absorption of Very High Energy Gamma-Rays from Microquasars: Application to LS 5039
• Gamma Rays from Compton Scattering in the Jets of Microquasars: Application to LS 5039
• The pertinence of Jet Emitting Discs physics to Microquasars: Application to Cygnus X-1
• Superorbital variability of X-ray and radio emission of Cyg X-1. I. Emission anisotropy of precessing sources