Dying Pulse Trains in Cygnus XR‐1: Evidence for an Event Horizon?

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Abstract
The X‐ray–emitting component in the Cyg XR‐1/HDE 226868 system is a leading candidate for identification as a stellar‐mass–sized black hole. The detection of an event horizon surrounding the point singularity in such a system would constitute a positive identification of a black hole as predicted by general relativity. One signature of such an event horizon would be the existence of dying pulse trains emitted by material spiraling into the event horizon from the last stable orbit around the black hole. We observed the Cyg XR‐1 system at three different epochs in a 1400–3000 Å bandpass with 0.1 ms time resolution using the Hubble Space Telescope's High Speed Photometer. Repeated excursions of the detected flux by more than 3 σ above the mean are present in the UV flux with an FWHM of 1–10 ms. If any of these excursions are pulses of radiation produced in the system (and not just stochastic variability associated with the Poisson distribution of detected photon arrival times), then this short a timescale requires that the pulses originate in the accretion disk around Cyg XR‐1. Two series of pulses with characteristics similar to those expected from dying pulse trains were detected in 3 hr of observation.

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