Exploring the accretion-ejection geometry of GRS 1915+105 in the obscured state with future X-ray spectro-polarimetry

TL;DR

This study investigates how future X-ray spectro-polarimetry can reveal the geometry of absorbing and reflecting matter in GRS 1915+105, especially during its obscured state, by combining spectral analysis and polarimetric simulations.

Contribution

It demonstrates that X-ray spectro-polarimetry can constrain the geometry of the system, which spectroscopy alone cannot achieve, using Monte Carlo simulations and NuSTAR data.

Findings

Spectroscopy shows the continuum becomes softer with increased flux.

Obscuring matter is highly ionized across all flux levels.

Polarimetric observations can determine geometrical parameters unconstrained by spectroscopy.

Abstract

GRS 1915+105 has been in a bright flux state for more than 2 decades, but in 2018 a significant drop in flux was observed, partly due to changes in the central engine along with increased X-ray absorption. The aim of this work is to explore how X-ray spectro-polarimetry can be used to derive the basic geometrical properties of the absorbing and reflecting matter. In particular, the expected polarisation of the radiation reflected off the disc and the putative outflow is calculated. We use \textit{NuSTAR} data collected after the flux drop to derive the parameters of the system from hard X-ray spectroscopy. The spectroscopic parameters are then used to derive the expected polarimetric signal, using results from a MonteCarlo radiative transfer code both in the case of neutral and fully ionised matter. From the spectral analysis, we find that the continuum emission becomes softer with increasing flux, and that in all flux levels the obscuring matter is highly ionised. This analysis, on the other hand, confirms that spectroscopy alone is unable to put constraints on the geometry of the reflectors. Simulations show that X-ray polarimetric observations, like those that will be provided soon by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), will help to determine the geometrical parameters which are left unconstrained by the spectroscopic analysis.