The Infrared Ellipsoidal Variations of Soft X-Ray Transients: Measuring the Mass of the Black Hole Primary

Details The Infrared Ellipsoidal Variations of Soft X-Ray Transients: Measuring the Mass of the Black Hole Primary The Infrared Ellipsoidal Variations of Soft X-Ray Transients: Measuring the Mass of the Black Hole Primary

Aug 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000noao.propr..86l&link_type=abstract

NOAO Proposal ID #2000B-0086

Physics

Scientific paper

Soft x-ray transients (SXTs) are systems that suddenly brighten at x- ray and optical wavelengths. Their outbursts last several months, and peak at luminosities of 1.5 x 10^38 erg/s. The primary object is believed to be a black hole, but only two such objects have been rigorously confirmed. The periods and radial velocities have been measured for each of our program SXTs. To determine the mass of the primary object we need to measure the orbital inclination. We propose to determine the orbital inclinations for five SXT systems through modeling of their infrared ellipsoidal variations. Because these systems are not eclipsing, modeling their light curves is the only feasible method for determining the inclination. We will model the light curves with the most recent version of the Wilson-Devinney code (WD98). The multi-wavelength light curves that we obtain in this project are needed to confidently determine system parameters and account for effects such as reflection from a hot accretion disk. Using the derived orbital inclinations we can determine primary masses of each SXT to better understand how the primary mass influences the outburst behavior. We are using NMSU time on the ARC 3.5m to observe two faint northern SXTs, and the CTIO 4m to observe two southern SXTs. We request four nights with SQIID on the KPNO 2.1m to obtain J, H, and K-band light curves of A0620-00 (the prototype SXT) over three orbital cycles.

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