Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 1993
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993apj...408l...5c&link_type=abstract
Astrophysical Journal, Part 2 - Letters (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 408, no. 1, p. L5-L8.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
56
Black Holes (Astronomy), Light Curve, Novae, X Ray Stars, Accretion Disks, Binary Stars
Scientific paper
We study the secondary maxima observed commonly in the X-ray/optical light curves of black hole X-ray novae and show that they can play an important role in our understanding of the X-ray nova phenomenon. We discuss the observational characteristics of the secondary maxima and possible mechanisms to produce them. We propose a complete scenario for black hole X-ray nova events. The main outburst is caused by a disk instability. The second maximum is caused by X-ray evaporation of the matter near the inner Lagrangian (L1) region when the disk becomes optically thin. The third maximum (or the final minioutburst) is due to a mass transfer instability caused by hard X-ray heating of the subphotospheric layers of the secondary during the outburst. We predict that the newly discovered X-ray nova GRO J0422 + 32 may develop a final minioutburst in early 1993 and that its binary orbital period is less than 7 hr.
Chen Wan
Gehrels Neil
Livio Mario
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