The Behavior of Accretion Disks in Low Mass X-ray Binaries: Disk Winds and Alpha Model

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

This dissertation presents research on two low mass X-ray binaries. The eclipsing low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1822-371 is the prototypical accretion disk corona (ADC) system. We have obtained new time-resolved UV spectroscopy with the ACS/SBC on the Hubble Space Telescope and new V- and J-band photometry with the 1.3-m SMARTS telescope at CTIO. We show that the accretion disk in the system has a strong wind with projected velocities up to 4000 km/s as determined from the Doppler width of the C IV emission line. The broad and shallow eclipse indicates that the disk has a vertically-extended, optically-thick component at optical wavelengths. This component extends almost to the edge of the disk and has a height equal to 50% of the disk radius. As it has a low brightness temperature, we identify it as the optically-thick base of the disk wind.
V1408 Aql (=4U 1957+115) is a low mass X-ray binary which continues to be a black hole candidate. We have new photometric data of this system from the Otto Struve 2.1-m telescope's high speed CCD photometer at McDonald Observatory. The light curve is largely sinusoidal which we model with two components: a constant light source from the disk and a sinusoidal modulation at the orbital period from the irradiated face of the companion star. This is a radical re-interpretation of the orbital light curve. We do not require a large or asymmetric disk rim to account for the modulation in the light curve. Thus, the orbital inclination is unconstrained in our new model, removing the foundation for any claims of the compact object being a black hole.

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