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X-RAY BINARIES

A new window on black hole accretion

Recent polarization measurements of the stellar-mass black hole in Cygnus X-1 reveal an extended corona in the inner parts of the accretion flow and open the path for a new era in high-energy astrophysics.

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Fig. 1: Examples of geometries proposed for the inner accretion flow in XRBs and AGNs.

central image courtesy of Stocktrek Images, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

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Correspondence to Julien Malzac.

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Malzac, J. A new window on black hole accretion. Nat Astron 2, 623–624 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0507-z

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