How fast jets reshape X-ray polarization in Cygnus X-3

Cygnus X-3 emits unexpectedly high polarized X-rays in both its hard and soft states, a pattern that static scattering models cannot explain. The team shows that relativistic outflows within a funnel-shaped geometry resolve the puzzle: slower flows produce 12% polarization (soft state), faster ones reaching 0.4c produce 23% (hard state). Relativistic aberration bends light paths in ways that amplify polarization, and the model also predicts a super-Eddington accretion rate—suggesting this system feeds on matter faster than gravity usually allows.