Characterizing X-ray binary long-term variability

Details Characterizing X-ray binary long-term variability Characterizing X-ray binary long-term variability

2011-11-05

arxiv.org/abs/1111.1296v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

17 pages, 26 figures, 4 tables, Accepted for publication in MNRAS on 4 November 2011

Scientific paper

Long-term ("superorbital") periods or modulations have been detected in a wide variety of both low and high-mass X-ray binaries at X-ray and optical wavelengths. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed to account for the variability properties, such as precessing and/or warped accretion discs, amongst others. The All Sky Monitor on board the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer provides the most extensive (~15 years) and sensitive X-ray archive for studying such behaviour. It is also clear that such variations can be intermittent and/or a function of X-ray spectral state. Consequently, we use a time-dependent Dynamic Power Spectrum method to examine how these modulations vary with time in 25 X-ray binaries for which superorbital periodicities have been previously reported. Our aim is to characterize these periodicities in a completely systematic way. Some (such as Her X-1 and LMC X-4) are remarkably stable, but others show a range of properties, from even longer variability time-scales to quite chaotic behaviour.

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