Outburst of the unique X-ray transient CI Cam and its impact on the system

Details Outburst of the unique X-ray transient CI Cam and its impact on the system Outburst of the unique X-ray transient CI Cam and its impact on the system

Apr 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007iaus..238..447s&link_type=abstract

Black Holes from Stars to Galaxies -- Across the Range of Masses. Edited by V. Karas and G. Matt. Proceedings of IAU Symposium #

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We analyse the 1998 outburst of the unique X-ray transient CI Cam (XTEJ0421+560), probably containing a black hole (BH). We discuss this event in the framework of several models - thermal instability of the accretion disk embedding the BH, mass-transfer burst from the donor, periastron passage of the BH around its B[e] supergiant companion. We argue that the outburst was caused by the thermal instability of the accretion disk, analogous to the outbursts of soft X-ray transients (SXTs). Applying the model of King and Ritter (1998) on the X-ray light curve, we obtain a realistic mass and radius of the disk at the peak of outburst. We argue that the differences from the SXTs belonging to the low-mass X-ray binaries can be explained if the disk in CI Cam heats up an extended envelope and/or a strong jet is formed. We show the impact of the outburst on the photometric behaviour of the CI Cam system in the optical and near infrared passbands, particularly on its long-term activity which largely changed immediately after the 1998 event. We find some indications that the variations of the source of the optical light can be related to those of the X-ray source in quiescence, particularly in an event which we interpret as a density enhancement in the matter exchange. We argue that the huge changes of the absorption of the X-ray spectrum can suggest re-filling of the disk embedding the compact object after the outburst. We also discuss the rapid variations in the optical region in various states of the post-outburst activity, and show that only low-amplitude, non-periodic variations can be present. As regards the absence of coherent changes, we point out the similarities in the situation of CI Cam and the microquasar LS5039/ RXJ1826-1450.

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