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Photograph of Ross Church

Ross Church

Senior lecturer

Photograph of Ross Church

On the origin of black hole spin in high-mass black hole binaries: Cygnus X-1

Author

  • Magnus Axelsson
  • Ross Church
  • Melvyn B Davies
  • Andrew J. Levan
  • Felix Ryde

Summary, in English

To date, there have been several detections of high-mass black hole binaries in both the Milky Way and other galaxies. For some of these, the spin parameter of the black hole has been estimated. As many of these systems are quite tight, a suggested origin of the spin is angular momentum imparted by the synchronous rotation of the black hole progenitor with its binary companion. Using Cygnus X-1, the best studied high-mass black hole binary, we investigate this possibility. We find that such an origin of the spin is not likely, and our results point rather to the spin being the result of processes during the collapse.

Department/s

  • Lund Observatory - Has been reorganised

Publishing year

2011

Language

English

Pages

2260-2264

Publication/Series

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Volume

412

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Topic

  • Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Keywords

  • black hole physics
  • binaries: close
  • X-rays: binaries
  • X-rays:
  • individual: Cygnus X-1

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1365-2966