Physics
Scientific paper
Feb 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008noao.prop..107s&link_type=abstract
NOAO Proposal ID #2008A-0107
Physics
Scientific paper
We propose to use the CT 1.3 m telescope to monitor the behavior of the optical modulation in the LMXB 4U 1636-536. Since 2002 its X-ray flux has been gradually declining and it started to exhibit a large amplitude, ~ 46 day periodicity, as revealed by the All-Sky Monitor (ASM) on-board RXTE. The most significant feature of this variability is that the high X-ray flux (20-100 keV, INTEGRAL/IBIS) is apparently anti-correlated with the soft X-ray flux (2-12 keV, RXTE/ASM). Such a feature is interpreted as the result of an accretion disk instability due to the decrease of mass accretion rate from the secondary star. If this interpretation is correct, then we expect to see the optical counterpart follow the soft X-ray variation, because the majority of the optical flux in LMXBs is generated by the reprocessing of X-rays on the accretion disk surface. However, the variation currently present give us an unprecedented opportunity to study and separate the effects of soft and hard X-rays on the properties of the disk. This optical observation will be combined with further RXTE and INTEGRAL data, and is expected to provide valuable information about the accretion process in LMXBs.
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