7–11 Sept 2026
Cefalù
Europe/Rome timezone

Investigating the Peculiar Obscured State of GRS 1915+105 with XMM-Newton and NuSTAR

Not scheduled
20m
Cefalù

Cefalù

Cefalù, province of Palermo, Sicily. Sala delle Capriate in the Town Hall (Piazza Duomo).
Poster

Speaker

Carlotta Miceli (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC))

Description

GRS 1915+105 is one of the most extreme Galactic black hole X-ray binaries, characterized by a quasi-persistent high accretion rates and complex X-ray variability. We present a broadband spectral study of its recent obscured state using a quasi-simultaneous XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observation obtained in July 2021.
A key result of this analysis is the measurement of a relatively low inclination angle, i $i \sim 42^{\circ}$, inferred consistently from both the relativistic FeK$\alpha$ line and the broadband reflection continuum. This value is significantly lower than the binary and jet inclination reported in the literature, suggesting that the reflection-emitting region may be observed at a substantially different effective inclination. Although the adopted spectral modelling remains partly phenomenological, and alternative geometrical configurations cannot be entirely excluded, our interpretation is consistent with recent high-resolution XRISM results, which also support a warped-disk geometry for the source.

Author

Carlotta Miceli (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC))

Presentation materials