Bibcode
Shahbaz, T.; Fender, R. P.; Watson, C. A.; O'Brien, K.
Bibliographical reference
A POPULATION EXPLOSION: The Nature & Evolution of X-ray Binaries in Diverse Environments. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1010, pp. 100-102 (2008).
Advertised on:
5
2008
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
We present near-infrared linear spectropolarimetry of a sample of
persistent X-ray binaries: Sco X-1, Cyg X-2 and GRS 1915+105. For Sco
X-1 and Cyg X-2, the polarization levels at 2.4 μm are 1.3+/-0.10 %
and 5.4+/-0.7 %, respectively, which is greater than the polarization
level at 1.65 μm. This cannot be explained by interstellar
polarization or electron scattering in the anisotropic environment of
the accretion flow. We propose that the most likely explanation is that
this is the polarimetric signature of synchrotron emission arising from
close to the base of the jet.