Precise measurement of the spin parameter of the stellar-mass black hole M33 X-7

被引:89
作者
Liu, Jifeng [1 ]
McClintock, Jeffrey E. [1 ]
Narayan, Ramesh [1 ]
Davis, Shane W. [2 ]
Orosz, Jerome A. [3 ]
机构
[1] Harvard Smithsonian Ctr Astrophys, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
[2] Inst Adv Study, Princeton, NJ 08540 USA
[3] San Diego State Univ, Dept Astron, San Diego, CA 92182 USA
来源
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS | 2008年 / 679卷 / 01期
关键词
binaries : general; black hole physics; galaxies : individual (M33); X-rays : binaries;
D O I
10.1086/588840
中图分类号
P1 [天文学];
学科分类号
0704 ;
摘要
In prior work, Chandra and Gemini-North observations of the eclipsing X-ray binary M33 X-7 have yielded measurements of the mass of its black hole primary and the system's orbital inclination angle of unprecedented accuracy. Likewise, the distance to the binary is known to a few percent. In an analysis based on these precise results, 15 Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray spectra, and our fully relativistic accretion disk model, we find that the dimensionless spin parameter of the black hole primary is a* = 0.77 +/- 0.05. The quoted 1 sigma error includes all sources of observational uncertainty. Four Chandra spectra of the highest quality, which were obtained over a span of several years, all lead to the same estimate of spin to within statistical errors (2%), and this estimate is confirmed by 11 spectra of lower quality. There are two remaining uncertainties: (1) the validity of the relativistic model used to analyze the observations, which is being addressed in ongoing theoretical work; and (2) our assumption that the black hole spin is approximately aligned with the angular momentum vector of the binary, which can be addressed by a future X-ray polarimetry mission.
引用
收藏
页码:L37 / L40
页数:4
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