Infrared Emission Lines in Cygnus X-3: Implications for Binary Evolution

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Recent infrared spectroscopy of the X-ray binary Cyg X-3 shows strong, broad emission lines of He I and He II similar to those exhibited by Wolf-Rayet stars (van Kerkwijk et al. 1992, Nature, 355, 703). This discovery supports the evolutionary scenario of van den Heuvel & De Loore (1973, AA, 25, 387) in which Cyg X-3 is the product of a massive X-ray binary (MXRB) whose early type companion has expanded beyond its Roche lobe, passed through a very rapid mass transfer phase as a Thorne-Zytkow object, and has found an equilibrium after completely shedding its hydrogen envelope. I show that to match the observed time derivative of the orbital period, the companion must be rotating slowly. This is consistent with the model as the Thorne-Zytkow phase is shorter than a reasonable estimate of the tidal synchronization time scale. I note that if given a spin period of 6 days, well within the range of MXRB orbital periods, the beat between the spin and orbital periods would match the observed radio period of 4.95 h.

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