Nature Astronomy ( IF 12.9 ) Pub Date : 2024-06-21 , DOI: 10.1038/s41550-024-02294-9 Alexandra Veledina , Fabio Muleri , Juri Poutanen , Jakub Podgorný , Michal Dovčiak , Fiamma Capitanio , Eugene Churazov , Alessandra De Rosa , Alessandro Di Marco , Sofia V. Forsblom , Philip Kaaret , Henric Krawczynski , Fabio La Monaca , Vladislav Loktev , Alexander A. Lutovinov , Sergey V. Molkov , Alexander A. Mushtukov , Ajay Ratheesh , Nicole Rodriguez Cavero , James F. Steiner , Rashid A. Sunyaev , Sergey S. Tsygankov , Martin C. Weisskopf , Andrzej A. Zdziarski , Stefano Bianchi , Joe S. Bright , Nikolaj Bursov , Enrico Costa , Elise Egron , Javier A. Garcia , David A. Green , Mark Gurwell , Adam Ingram , Jari J. E. Kajava , Ruta Kale , Alex Kraus , Denys Malyshev , Frédéric Marin , Giorgio Matt , Michael McCollough , Ilya A. Mereminskiy , Nikolaj Nizhelsky , Giovanni Piano , Maura Pilia , Carlotta Pittori , Ramprasad Rao , Simona Righini , Paolo Soffitta , Anton Shevchenko , Jiri Svoboda , Francesco Tombesi , Sergei A. Trushkin , Peter Tsybulev , Francesco Ursini , Kinwah Wu , Iván Agudo , Lucio A. Antonelli , Matteo Bachetti , Luca Baldini , Wayne H. Baumgartner , Ronaldo Bellazzini , Stephen D. Bongiorno , Raffaella Bonino , Alessandro Brez , Niccolò Bucciantini , Simone Castellano , Elisabetta Cavazzuti , Chien-Ting Chen , Stefano Ciprini , Ettore Del Monte , Laura Di Gesu , Niccolò Di Lalla , Immacolata Donnarumma , Victor Doroshenko , Steven R. Ehlert , Teruaki Enoto , Yuri Evangelista , Sergio Fabiani , Riccardo Ferrazzoli , Shuichi Gunji , Kiyoshi Hayashida , Jeremy Heyl , Wataru Iwakiri , Svetlana G. Jorstad , Vladimir Karas , Fabian Kislat , Takao Kitaguchi , Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak , Luca Latronico , Ioannis Liodakis , Simone Maldera , Alberto Manfreda , Andrea Marinucci , Alan P. Marscher , Herman L. Marshall , Francesco Massaro , Ikuyuki Mitsuishi , Tsunefumi Mizuno , Michela Negro , Chi-Yung Ng , Stephen L. O’Dell , Nicola Omodei , Chiara Oppedisano , Alessandro Papitto , George G. Pavlov , Abel L. Peirson , Matteo Perri , Melissa Pesce-Rollins , Pierre-Olivier Petrucci , Andrea Possenti , Simonetta Puccetti , Brian D. Ramsey , John Rankin , Oliver Roberts , Roger W. Romani , Carmelo Sgrò , Patrick Slane , Gloria Spandre , Doug Swartz , Toru Tamagawa , Fabrizio Tavecchio , Roberto Taverna , Yuzuru Tawara , Allyn F. Tennant , Nicholas E. Thomas , Alessio Trois , Roberto Turolla , Jacco Vink , Fei Xie , Silvia Zane
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The accretion of matter by compact objects can be inhibited by radiation pressure if the luminosity exceeds a critical value known as the Eddington limit. The discovery of ultraluminous X-ray sources has shown that accretion can proceed even when the apparent luminosity considerably exceeds this limit. A high apparent luminosity might be produced due to the geometric beaming of radiation by an outflow. The outflow half-opening angle, which determines the amplification due to beaming, has never been robustly constrained. Using the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, we measured the X-ray polarization in the Galactic X-ray binary Cygnus X-3 (Cyg X-3). We found high, >20%, nearly energy-independent linear polarization orthogonal to the direction of the radio ejections. These properties unambiguously indicate the presence of a collimating outflow from the X-ray binary Cyg X-3 and constrain its half-opening angle to ≲15°. Thus, the source can be used as a laboratory for studying the supercritical accretion regime. This finding underscores the importance of X-ray polarimetry in advancing our understanding of accreting sources.
中文翻译:
![](https://scdn.x-mol.com/jcss/images/paperTranslation.png)
IXPE 揭示天鹅座 X-3 是银河系超发光 X 射线源
如果光度超过称为爱丁顿极限的临界值,则辐射压可以抑制致密物体对物质的吸积。超发光 X 射线源的发现表明,即使表观光度大大超过此极限,吸积也会继续进行。由于流出物的几何辐射束,可能会产生高表观光度。决定射束放大的流出半开角从未受到严格限制。使用成像 X 射线偏振测量探测器,我们测量了银河 X 射线双星天鹅座 X-3 (Cyg X-3) 中的 X 射线偏振。我们发现与射电喷射方向正交的高、>20%、几乎与能量无关的线性偏振。这些特性明确表明 X 射线双星 Cyg X-3 存在准直流出,并将其半张角限制为 ≲15°。因此,该源可以用作研究超临界吸积体系的实验室。这一发现强调了 X 射线偏振测量在增进我们对吸积源的理解方面的重要性。