Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Scientific paper
2012-04-24
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
16 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS
Scientific paper
We present a comprehensive study of the periodic variations observed in OGLE I-band light curves of SMC Be/X-ray binaries, discovering new optical periodicities in 9 systems. We find that these periodicities derive from a number of mechanisms, notably disturbance of the decretion disk on the orbital period of the system, and aliased non-radial pulsations. We develop metrics that allow these mechanisms to be distinguished on the basis of the shape of the folded optical light curve, and use these metrics to categorise the periodicities present in \sim 50 SMC binary systems. We conclude that extreme care must be taken in the interpretation of the OGLE light curves since only around 30% of the periodicities present can be unambiguously attributed to orbital periods.
Bird Andrew J.
Coe Malcolm J.
McBride Vanessa A.
Udalski Andrzej
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