The distribution of X-ray dips with orbital phase in Cygnus X-1

We present results of a comprehensive study of the distribution of absorption dips with orbital phase in Cygnus X-1. First, the distribution was obtained using archival data from all major X-ray observatories and corrected for the selection effect that phase zero (superior conjunction of the black hole) has been preferentially observed. Dip occurrence was seen to vary strongly with orbital phase phi, with a peak at phi similar to 0.95, i.e. was not symmetric about phase zero. Secondly, the RXTE ASM has provided continuous coverage of the low state of Cygnus X-1 since 1996 September, and we have selected dip data based on increases in hardness ratio. The distribution, with much increased numbers of dip events, confirms that the peak is at phi similar to 0.95, and we report the discovery of a second peak at phi similar to 0.6. We attribute this peak to absorption in an accretion stream from the companion star HDE 226868. We have estimated the ionization parameter xi at different positions showing that radiative acceleration of the wind is suppressed by photoionization in particular regions in the binary system. To obtain the variation of column density with phase, we make estimates of neutral wind density for the extreme cases that acceleration of the wind is totally suppressed, or not suppressed at all. An accurate description will lie between these extremes. In each case, a strong variation of column density with orbital phase resulted, similar to the variation of dip occurrence. This provides evidence that formation of the blobs in the wind, which lead to absorption dips, depends on the density of the neutral component in the wind, suggesting possible mechanisms for blob growth.