Studying Microquasars with X-Ray Polarimetry

Microquasars are Galactic black hole systems in which matter is transferred from a donor star and accretes onto a black hole of, typically, 10–20 solar masses. The presence of an accretion disk and a relativistic jet made them a scaled down analogue of quasars—thence their name. Microquasars feature...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Giorgio Matt, Francesco Tamborra
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2018-03-01
Series:Galaxies
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4434/6/1/32
Description
Summary:Microquasars are Galactic black hole systems in which matter is transferred from a donor star and accretes onto a black hole of, typically, 10–20 solar masses. The presence of an accretion disk and a relativistic jet made them a scaled down analogue of quasars—thence their name. Microquasars feature prominently in the scientific goals of X-ray polarimeters, because a number of open questions, which are discussed in this paper, can potentially be answered: the geometry of the hot corona believed to be responsible for the hard X-ray emission; the role of the jet; the spin of the black hole.
ISSN:2075-4434