First detection of X-ray polarization in thermal state of LMC X-3: spectro-polarimetric study with IXPE

Abstract

ABSTRACT We report a comprehensive spectro-polarimetric study of the black hole binary LMC X-3 using simultaneous Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), NICER, and NuSTAR observations in 0.5–20 keV energy band. The broad-band energy spectrum (0.5–20 keV) with NICER and NuSTAR is well described by the disc emission of temperature ∼1.1 keV and a weak Comptonizing tail beyond ∼10 keV. This evidently suggests a disc-dominated spectral state of the source with disc contribution of ∼96 per cent. The lack of variability (rms ∼ 0.5 per cent) in the power spectrum further corroborates the high/soft nature of the source. A significant polarization degree (PD) of 3.04 ± 0.40 per cent (>7σ) at a polarization angle of −44.24° ± 3.77° (>7σ) is found in 2–8 keV energy range of IXPE. In addition, PD is seen to increase with energy up to ∼4.35 ± 0.98 per cent (>3σ) in 4–8 keV band. Further, we attempt to constrain the source spin (a*) using broad-band spectral modelling that indicates a weakly rotating ‘hole’ in LMC X-3 with $a_{*}=0.273_{-0.012}^{+0.011}\,\text{to}\,0.295_{-0.021}^{+0.008}$ (90 per cent confidence). Based on the spectro-polarimetric results, we infer that the polarization in LMC X-3 is resulted possibly due to the combined effects of the direct and/or reflected emissions from a partially ionized disc atmosphere. Finally, we discuss the relevance of our findings.