RXTE/PCA Observations of Hercules X-1: New Features of the Orbital and 35-day Folded Light Curves

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

Hercules X-1 is one of the best-known X-ray binaries, and is an eclipsing system. It has a long-term 35-day cycle
consisting of a regular sequence of high, low and short-high states. The cause of the cycle has been established to be changing obscuration of the line-of-sight to the neutron star by a warped accretion disk which precesses in the binary frame. In this study, X-ray observations of Hercules X-1 taken over a period of more than 10 years with the Proportional Counter Array (PCA) instrument of the Rossi
X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite are analyzed. 35-day phase is determined using a study of RXTE All Sky Monitor data and verified with the PCA data. Absorption dips are identified and studied as a function of orbital and 35-day phase. The extensive RXTE/PCA data give a considerably better and different picture of the dip phenomena than previously possible. The anomalous low states are also
examined and shown to be closely related to normal low states.
This work funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

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