X-Ray Polarimetry as a Tool to Constrain Orbital Parameters in X-Ray Binaries

Autor: John Rankin, Vadim Kravtsov, Fabio Muleri, Juri Poutanen, Frédéric Marin, Fiamma Capitanio, Giorgio Matt, Enrico Costa, Alessandro Di Marco, Sergio Fabiani, Fabio La Monaca, Lorenzo Marra, Paolo Soffitta
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Astrophysical Journal, Vol 962, Iss 1, p 34 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1538-4357
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad1991
Popis: X-ray binary systems consist of a companion star and a compact object in close orbit. Thanks to their copious X-ray emission, these objects have been studied in detail using X-ray spectroscopy and timing. The inclination of these systems is a major uncertainty in the determination of the mass of the compact object using optical spectroscopic methods. In this paper, we present a new method to constrain the inclination of X-ray binaries, which is based on the modeling of the polarization of X-rays photons produced by a compact source and scattered off the companion star. We describe our method and explore the potential of this technique in the specific case of the low-mass X-ray binary GS 1826−238 observed by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer observatory.
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