The observational signatures of black holes in x-ray binary systems depend on their masses, spins, accretion rate and the misalignment angle between the black hole spin and the orbital angular momentum. We present optical polarimetric observations of the black hole x-ray binary MAXI J1820+070, from which we constrain the position angle of the binary orbital axis. Combining this with previous determinations of the relativistic jet orientation axis, which traces the black hole spin, and the inclination of the orbit, we determine a lower limit of 40 deg on the spin-orbit misalignment angle. The misalignment has to originate from either the binary or black hole formation stage. If other x-ray binaries have similarly large misalignments, these would bias measurements of black hole masses and spins from x-ray observations.
@article{arxiv.2109.07511,
title = {Black hole spin-orbit misalignment in the X-ray binary MAXI J1820+070},
author = {Juri Poutanen and Alexandra Veledina and Andrei V. Berdyugin and Svetlana V. Berdyugina and Helen Jermak and Peter G. Jonker and Jari J. E. Kajava and Ilia A. Kosenkov and Vadim Kravtsov and Vilppu Piirola and Manisha Shrestha and Manuel A. P. Torres and Sergey S. Tsygankov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2109.07511},
year = {2022}
}