TY - JOUR
T1 - MAXI J1659-152
T2 - The shortest orbital period black-hole transient in outburst
AU - Kuulkers, E.
AU - Kouveliotou, C.
AU - Belloni, T.
AU - Cadolle Bel, M.
AU - Chenevez, J.
AU - Díaz Trigo, M.
AU - Homan, J.
AU - Ibarra, A.
AU - Kennea, J. A.
AU - Muñoz-Darias, T.
AU - Ness, J. U.
AU - Parmar, A. N.
AU - Pollock, A. M.T.
AU - Van Den Heuvel, E. P.J.
AU - Van Der Horst, A. J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Partly based on observations obtained with XMM-Newton , an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and NASA. This research has made use of data obtained through the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center Online Service, provided by the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. The MAXI/GSC data are provided by RIKEN, JAXA and the MAXI team, whilst the Swift /BAT transient monitor results are provided by the Swift /BAT team. We especially thank the XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre for their prompt scheduling of the Target of Opportunity observations, 5 h between trigger and start of observation on September 27! We would also like to thank the Swift and RXTE teams for their scheduling of the many monitoring observations. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007/2013) under grant agreement number ITN 215212 “Black Hole Universe”. TMB acknowledges support to ASI-INAF grant I/009/10/0, as well as funding via an EU Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship under contract no. 2011-301355. EK thanks John Tonry for discussions regarding the Pan-STARRS 1 optical candidate, Vik Dhillon for supplying the “PERIOD” analysis package, which we used in our periodicity analysis, and Kazutaka Yamaoka for providing the estimated 3–200 keV fluxes from RXTE spectral fits. E.K. and T.M.D. acknowledge Sara Motta for her comments on the RXTE spectral analysis. E.K. and M.D.T. thank Roberto Vio for a discussion on the periodograms. J.C. was supported by ESA-PRODEX contract N: 90057. Last but not least, we thank the referee for his/her careful reading of the manuscript.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - MAXI J1659-152 is a bright X-ray transient black-hole candidate binary system discovered in September 2010. We report here on MAXI, RXTE, Swift, and XMM-Newton observations during its 2010/2011 outburst. We find that during the first one and a half week of the outburst the X-ray light curves display drops in intensity at regular intervals, which we interpret as absorption dips. About three weeks into the outbursts, again drops in intensity are seen. These dips have, however, a spectral behaviour opposite to that of the absorption dips, and are related to fast spectral state changes (hence referred to as transition dips). The absorption dips recur with a period of 2.414 ± 0.005 h, which we interpret as the orbital period of the system. This implies that MAXI J1659-152 is the shortest period black-hole candidate binary known to date. The inclination of the accretion disk with respect to the line of sight is estimated to be 65-80. We propose the companion to the black-hole candidate to be close to an M5 dwarf star, with a mass and radius of about 0.15-0.25 M ⊙ and 0.2-0.25 R ⊙, respectively. We derive that the companion had an initial mass of about 1.5 M⊙, which evolved to its current mass in about 5-6 billion years. The system is rather compact (orbital separation of â‰1.33 R ⊙), and is located at a distance of 8.6 ± 3.7 kpc, with a height above the Galactic plane of 2.4 ± 1.0 kpc. The characteristics of short orbital period and high Galactic scale height are shared with two other transient black-hole candidate X-ray binaries, i.e., XTE J1118+480 and Swift J1735.5-0127. We suggest that all three are kicked out of the Galactic plane into the halo, rather than being formed in a globular cluster.
AB - MAXI J1659-152 is a bright X-ray transient black-hole candidate binary system discovered in September 2010. We report here on MAXI, RXTE, Swift, and XMM-Newton observations during its 2010/2011 outburst. We find that during the first one and a half week of the outburst the X-ray light curves display drops in intensity at regular intervals, which we interpret as absorption dips. About three weeks into the outbursts, again drops in intensity are seen. These dips have, however, a spectral behaviour opposite to that of the absorption dips, and are related to fast spectral state changes (hence referred to as transition dips). The absorption dips recur with a period of 2.414 ± 0.005 h, which we interpret as the orbital period of the system. This implies that MAXI J1659-152 is the shortest period black-hole candidate binary known to date. The inclination of the accretion disk with respect to the line of sight is estimated to be 65-80. We propose the companion to the black-hole candidate to be close to an M5 dwarf star, with a mass and radius of about 0.15-0.25 M ⊙ and 0.2-0.25 R ⊙, respectively. We derive that the companion had an initial mass of about 1.5 M⊙, which evolved to its current mass in about 5-6 billion years. The system is rather compact (orbital separation of â‰1.33 R ⊙), and is located at a distance of 8.6 ± 3.7 kpc, with a height above the Galactic plane of 2.4 ± 1.0 kpc. The characteristics of short orbital period and high Galactic scale height are shared with two other transient black-hole candidate X-ray binaries, i.e., XTE J1118+480 and Swift J1735.5-0127. We suggest that all three are kicked out of the Galactic plane into the halo, rather than being formed in a globular cluster.
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U2 - 10.1051/0004-6361/201219447
DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/201219447
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84875347879
SN - 0004-6361
VL - 552
JO - Astronomy and Astrophysics
JF - Astronomy and Astrophysics
M1 - A32
ER -