The 1999 Optical Outburst of the Fast X-Ray Nova, V4641 Sagittarii

Details The 1999 Optical Outburst of the Fast X-Ray Nova, V4641 Sagittarii The 1999 Optical Outburst of the Fast X-Ray Nova, V4641 Sagittarii

Feb 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002pasj...54...95u&link_type=abstract

Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, Vol.54, No.1, pp. 95-101

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

14

Accretion, Accretion Disks, Stars: Binaries: Close, Stars: Individual (V4641 Sgr)

Scientific paper

We report on the detection of an optical outburst which preceded the X-ray main flare of the fast X-ray nova V4641 Sagittarii. The object became active since early August 1999, and then experienced an optical outburst reaching 8.8mag on 1999 September 15. The observed maximum was between two X-ray flares, that is, 12.1hr after the X-ray sub-flare and 7.4hr before the main one. The brightness returned to the quiescent level within 5d, which indicates that the optical outburst rapidly faded as those at other wavelengths, while typical X-ray novae exponentially decay with an e-folding time of 30-40d. We confirmed ellipsoidal modulations in our observations at quiescence. Using them with the previously reported observations, we calculated the period of modulations to be 2.817284 +/- 0.000018d. From the Hα absorption line in quiescent spectra, we obtained the semi-amplitude of the radial velocity for the secondary star to be 176 +/- 20 kms-1. A ssuming the mass ratio reported in Orosz et al. (2001, ApJ, 555, 489) we estimated the lower limit of the compact object mass to be 5.84 Msolar. To interpret the short outburst and the large luminosity during the outburst, we propose a scenario of a transient supercritical accretion onto a black hole.

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