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The 2016 super-Eddington outburst of SMC X-3: X-ray and optical properties and system parameters

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cris.lastimport.scopus2024-02-12T19:33:45Z
dc.abstract.enOn 2016 July 30 (MJD 57599), observations of the Small Magellanic Cloud by Swift/XRT found an increase in X-ray counts coming from a position consistent with the Be/X-ray binary pulsar SMC X-3. Follow-up observations on 2016 August 3 (MJD 57603) and 2016 August 10 (MJD 57610) revealed a rapidly increasing count rate and confirmed the onset of a new X-ray outburst from the system. Further monitoring by Swift began to uncover the enormity of the outburst, which peaked at 1.2 × 10<SUP>39</SUP> erg s<SUP>-1</SUP> on 2016 August 25 (MJD 57625). The system then began a gradual decline in flux that was still continuing over 5 months after the initial detection. We explore the X-ray and optical behaviour of SMC X-3 between 2016 July 30 and 2016 December 18 during this super-Eddington outburst. We apply a binary model to the spin-period evolution that takes into account the complex accretion changes over the outburst, to solve for the orbital parameters. Our results show SMC X-3 to be a system with a moderately low eccentricity amongst the Be/X-ray binary systems and to have a dynamically determined orbital period statistically consistent with the prominent period measured in the OGLE optical light curve. Our optical and X-ray derived ephemerides show that the peak in optical flux occurs roughly 6 d after periastron. The measured increase in I-band flux from the counterpart during the outburst is reflected in the measured equivalent width of the H<SUB>α</SUB> line emission, though the H<SUB>α</SUB> emission itself seems variable on sub-day time-scales, possibly due to the NS interacting with an inhomogeneous disc.
dc.affiliationUniwersytet Warszawski
dc.contributor.authorTownsend, L. J.
dc.contributor.authorKennea, J. A.
dc.contributor.authorCoe, M. J.
dc.contributor.authorMcBride, V. A.
dc.contributor.authorBuckley, D. A. H.
dc.contributor.authorEvans, P. A.
dc.contributor.authorUdalski, Andrzej
dc.date.accessioned2024-01-26T09:52:57Z
dc.date.available2024-01-26T09:52:57Z
dc.date.copyright2017-01-09
dc.date.issued2017
dc.description.accesstimeBEFORE_PUBLICATION
dc.description.financeNie dotyczy
dc.description.number4
dc.description.versionORIGINAL_AUTHOR
dc.description.volume471
dc.identifier.doi10.1093/MNRAS/STX1865
dc.identifier.issn0035-8711
dc.identifier.urihttps://repozytorium.uw.edu.pl//handle/item/121825
dc.identifier.weblinkhttp://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017MNRAS.471.3878T
dc.languageeng
dc.pbn.affiliationastronomy
dc.relation.ispartofMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
dc.relation.pages3878-3887
dc.rightsOther
dc.sciencecloudnosend
dc.titleThe 2016 super-Eddington outburst of SMC X-3: X-ray and optical properties and system parameters
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typePublication