Echoes from an irradiated disc in GRO J1655–40

Hynes, R.I.; O'Brien, K; Horne, K.; Chen, W. and Haswell, C. A. (1998). Echoes from an irradiated disc in GRO J1655–40. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 299(4) L37-L41.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-8711.1998.01856.x

Abstract

We demonstrate correlated rapid variability between the optical/UV and X-ray emission for the first time in a soft X-ray transient, GRO J1655–40: Hubble Space Telescope (HST) light curves show similar features to those seen by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), but with mean delay of up to 10–20 s. We interpret the correlations as the result of reprocessing of X-rays into optical and UV emission, with a delay owing to finite light travel time, and thus perform echo mapping of the system. The time-delay distribution has a mean of 14.6 ± 1.4 s and dispersion (i.e. the standard deviation of the distribution) of 10.5 ± 1.9 s at binary phase 0.4. Hence we identify the reprocessing region as the accretion disc rather than the mass donor star.

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About

• Item ORO ID
• 11140
• Item Type
• Journal Item
• ISSN
• 1365-2966
• Keywords
• accretion, accretion discs – binaries: close – stars: individual: Nova Sco 1994 (GRO J1655–40) – ultraviolet: stars – X-rays: stars.
• Academic Unit or School
• Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) > Physical Sciences
  Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
• Depositing User
• Astrid Peterkin