Bibcode
Gies, D. R.; Bolton, C. T.; Fender, R.; Herrero, A.; Hillwig, T. C.; Kaper, L.; McSwain, M. V.; Thomson, J.; Wallace, D. J.; Wiita, P. J.
Referencia bibliográfica
American Astronomical Society Meeting 203, #81.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 35, p.1332
Fecha de publicación:
12
2003
Número de citas
0
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
The black hole binary, Cyg X-1, is generally observed in one of two long
duration X-ray states: a low flux, hard spectrum state (most common) and
a high flux, soft spectrum state (rare). Models predict that the high/
soft state corresponds to a high mass transfer phase in the binary, and
since the X-ray source is fueled by accretion from the stellar wind of
the supergiant companion, the simple expectation is that the high/soft
state results from an increased wind mass loss rate. Alternatively, a
decrease in the wind mass loss rate could result in a more ionized and
slower wind in the vicinity of the black hole, which would then be more
easily accreted by the black hole. The best test of these hypotheses is
to observe the UV P Cygni lines of the supergiant that are formed in its
wind outflow. We recently used HST/STIS to obtain the first high
resolution UV spectra of the system while it resided in the unusual high
soft states in 2002 and 2003. Here we present our results on the orbital
variations in the P Cygni wind lines that show dramatically how the
X-ray source ionizes the wind.
Support for this work (HST Proposal Number 9840) was provided by NASA
through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is
operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy,
Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS5-26555.