Using Monte Carlo methods to simulate the inverse Compton scattering of soft
photons, we model the spectrum of the Galactic black hole candidate Cyg X-1,
which shows evidence of a nonthermal tail extending beyond a few hundred keV.
We assume an ad hoc sphere of leptons, whose energy distribution consists of a
Maxwellian plus a high energy power-law tail, and inject 0.5 keV blackbody
photons. The spectral data is used to constrain the nonthermal plasma fraction
and the power-law index assuming a reasonable Maxwellian temperature and
Thomson depth. A small but non-negligible fraction of nonthermal leptons is
needed to explain the power-law tail.Comment: 5 pages, 2 PostScript figure, uses aipproc.sty, to appear in
Proceedings of Fourth Compton Symposiu
