Hybrid Comptonization and Electron-Positron Pair Production in the Black-hole X-Ray Binary MAXI J1820+070

We study X-ray and soft gamma-ray spectra from the hard state of the accreting black-hole binary MAXI J1820+070. We perform an analysis of two joint spectra from NuSTAR and INTEGRAL, covering the range of 3-650 keV, and of an average joint spectrum over the rise of the hard state, covering the 3-2200 keV range. The spectra are well modeled by Comptonization of soft seed photons. However, the distributions of the scattering electrons are not purely thermal; we find they have substantial high-energy tails, well modeled as power laws. The photon tail in the average spectrum is detected well beyond the threshold for electron-positron pair production, 511 keV. This allows us to calculate the rate of the electron-positron pair production and put a lower limit on the size of the source from pair equilibrium. At the fitted Thomson optical depth of the Comptonizing plasma, the limit is about 4 gravitational radii. If we adopt the sizes estimated by us from the reflection spectroscopy of >20 gravitational radii, the fractional pair abundance becomes much less than unity. The low pair abundance is confirmed by the lack of both an annihilation feature and of a pair absorption cutoff above 511 keV in the average spectrum.

Automated summary

The study of X-ray and soft gamma-ray spectra from the hard state of the accreting black-hole binary MAXI J1820+070 reveals non-thermal distributions of scattering electrons, modeled as power laws. The detection of a photon tail beyond the threshold for electron-positron pair production allows for the calculation of the pair production rate and the estimation of the source size. The low pair abundance, confirmed by the lack of specific features in the average spectrum, suggests a fractional pair abundance much less than unity.