USING THE X-RAY DUST SCATTERING HALO OF CYGNUS X-1 TO DETERMINE DISTANCE AND DUST DISTRIBUTIONS
- Department of Astronomy (a part of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), Harvard University, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kavli Center, 77 Massachusetts Ave. NE80, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)
- Dr. Karl-Remeis-Observatory and Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Sternwartstr. 7, 96049 Bamberg (Germany)
We present a detailed study of the X-ray dust scattering halo of the black hole candidate Cygnus X-1 based on two Chandra High Energy Transmission Gratings Spectrometer observations. Using 18 different dust models, including one modified by us (eponymously dubbed XLNW), we probe the interstellar medium between us and this source. A consistent description of the cloud properties along the line of sight (LOS) that describes at the same time the halo radial profile, the halo light curves, and the column density from source spectroscopy is best achieved with a small subset of these models. Combining the studies of the halo radial profile and the halo light curves, we favor a geometric distance to Cygnus X-1 of d = 1.81 {+-} 0.09 kpc. Our study also shows that there is a dense cloud, which contributes {approx}50% of the dust grains along the LOS to Cygnus X-1, located at {approx}1.6 kpc from us. The remainder of the dust along the LOS is close to the black hole binary.
- OSTI ID:
- 21582918
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 738, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/738/1/78; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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