Cyclotron emission near stellar mass black holes

Cyclotron emission in the inner regions of an accretion disk around a matter accreting black hole can be appreciable. In the case of the X-ray source Cyg X-1, cyclotron emission may provide the soft photons needed for 'Comptonization' to produce high energy X-rays. The inverse correlation between the fluxes of high energy and low energy X-rays during the 'high' and 'low' states of Cyg X-1, may be understood as a result of the variation of the rate of accretion and the Compton scattering of the cyclotron photons. In the case of the X-ray source GX 339-4, the observed optical flux during the high states does not seem to be due to cyclotron emission, but probably due to reprocessing of high energy X-rays by the outer regions of the disk.