RXTE observation of Cygnus X-1: spectral analysis

Physics – Nuclear Physics

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

We present the results of the analysis of the broad-band spectrum of Cygnus X-1 from 3.0 to 200keV, using data from a 10ksec observation by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. Although the spectrum can be well described phenomenologically by an exponentially cut-off power law (photon index Γ=1.45+0.01-0.02, e-folding energy Ef=162+9-8keV, plus a deviation from a power law that formally can be modeled as a thermal blackbody with temperature kTBB=1.2+0.0-0.1keV), the inclusion of a reflection component does not improve the fit. As a physical description of this system, we apply the accretion disc corona (ADC0 models of Dove, Wilms & Begelman [1]). A slab-geometry ADC model is unable to describe the data. However, a spherical corona, with a total optical depth τ=1.6+/-0.1 and an average temperature kTC=87+/-5keV, surrounded by an exterior cold disc, does provide a good description of the data (χ2red=1.55). These models deviate from the data by up to 7% in the 5-10keV range. However, considering how successfully the spherical corona reproduces the 10-200keV data, such ``photon-starved'' coronal geometries seem very promising for explaining the accretion processes of Cygnus X-1.

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