LMCX-4 - The optical 30-day cycle and its implications

Details LMCX-4 - The optical 30-day cycle and its implications LMCX-4 - The optical 30-day cycle and its implications

Nov 1984

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1984a%26a...140..251i&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 140, no. 2, Nov. 1984, p. 251-258. Research supported by the Institut National

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

29

Accretion Disks, Binary Stars, X Ray Sources, Astronomical Photometry, Light Curve, Orbits

Scientific paper

Analysis of an extensive set of optical photometry of the massive X-ray binary LMC X-4 obtained at ESO from 1976 through 1983 shows the presence of the X-ray 30-day cycle. The periodogram exhibits peaks at the sums of the orbital and half-orbital frequencies with the 30-day frequency and at the 30-day frequency itself. During X-ray OFF states, the amplitude of the 1.408-day orbital period double-wave light curve is 0.07 mag, while during ON states it increases to 0.20 mag. The authors explain the observed effects in terms of an X-ray illuminated, tilted, counter-"precessing" accretion disk. The excess light comes both from the accretion disk itself and from the illuminated hemisphere of the primary, the latter experiencing variable X-ray shadowing due to the changing aspect of the disk.

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