2017MNRAS.471.3878T -
Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 471, 3878-3887 (2017/November-2)
The 2016 super-Eddington outburst of SMC X-3: X-ray and optical properties and system parameters.
TOWNSEND L.J., KENNEA J.A., COE M.J., McBRIDE V.A., BUCKLEY D.A.H., EVANS P.A. and UDALSKI A.
Abstract (from CDS):
On 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 x 1039 erg s–1 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 Hα line emission, though the Hα emission itself seems variable on sub-day time-scales, possibly due to the NS interacting with an inhomogeneous disc.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2017 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society
Journal keyword(s):
ephemerides - stars: emission-line, Be - Magellanic Clouds - X-rays: binaries - X-rays: binaries
Status at CDS
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