Spectral signatures of reprocessing on the companion and accretion disc of Hercules X-1

Details Spectral signatures of reprocessing on the companion and accretion disc of Hercules X-1 Spectral signatures of reprocessing on the companion and accretion disc of Hercules X-1

Nov 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997mnras.292...52s&link_type=abstract

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 292, p. 52

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

25

Spectral Signatures, Stellar Spectra, X Ray Stars, Binary Stars, Companion Stars, Accretion Disks, Astronomical Photometry, Line Spectra

Scientific paper

We present optical spectrophotometric observations of the X-ray binary star Her X-1. The majority of line absorption and emission originates on or near the mass-losing primary with distributions over the inner face of the star, consistent with irradiation by X-rays from the environs of the compact companion. He II 4686 A emission is detected and found to be distributed closely about the neutron star and is a likely tracer of the accretion flow. Variations from orbit-to-orbit are a consequence of the 35-d quasi-periodicity that has been previously found over the entire observable spectrum. The mechanism providing the 35-d period is considered to be the precession of a tilted and twisted accretion disk about the neutron star. In order to determine the plausibility of the twisted-disk model we reconstruct the expected shadow of the disk across the heated inner face of the donor star. Large-scale emission structure is reproduced, but the model fails to synthesize finer observational details predicted by recent theoretical calculations.

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