Discovery of a thermonuclear Type I X-ray burst in infrared: new limits on the orbital period of 4U 1728-34

F M Vincentelli; Y Cavecchi; P Casella; S Migliari; D Altamirano; T Belloni; M Diaz-Trigo

doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slaa049

Discovery of a thermonuclear Type I X-ray burst in infrared: new limits on the orbital period of 4U 1728-34

F M Vincentelli
, Y Cavecchi
, P Casella
, S Migliari
, D Altamirano
, T Belloni
, M Diaz-Trigo

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We report the detection of an infrared burst lagging a thermonuclear Type I X-ray burst from the accreting neutron star (NS) 4U 1728-34 (GX 354-0). Observations were performed simultaneously with XMM-Newton (0.7-12 keV), NuSTAR (3-79 keV), and HAWK-I@VLT (2.2 μm). We measure a lag of 4.75 ± 0.5 s between the peaks of the emission in the two bands. Due to the length of the lag and the shape of the IR burst, we found that the most plausible cause for such a large delay is reprocessing of the Type I burst X-rays by the companion star. The inferred distance between the NS and the companion can be used to constrain the orbital period of the system, which we find to be larger than ∼66 min (or even ≳2 h, for a realistic inclination <75 ^◦). This is much larger than the current tentatively estimated period of ∼11 min. We discuss the physical implications on the nature of the binary and conclude that most likely the companion of 4U 1728-34 is a helium star.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	37-41
Number of pages	5
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Volume	495
Issue number	1
Early online date	10 Apr 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slaa049
Publication status	Published - 11 Jun 2020
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s)

Funding

This letter benefited from the meeting 'Looking at the disc-jet coupling from different angles' held at the International Space Science Institute in Bern, Switzerland. FMV thanks Omer Blaes and Soton 'binary group' for useful discussions. FMV acknowledges support from STFC under grant ST/R000638/1. YC is supported by the EC Marie Sk?odowska-Curie Global Fellowship grant no. 703916. FMV acknowledges support from STFC under grant ST/R000638/1. DA is supported by the Royal Society. TB and PC acknowledges financial contribution from the agreement ASI-INAF no. 2017-14-H.0. This letter benefited from the meeting ‘Looking at the disc-jet coupling from different angles’ held at the International Space Science Institute in Bern, Switzerland. FMV thanks Omer Blaes and Soton ‘binary group’ for useful discussions. FMV acknowledges support from STFC under grant ST/R000638/1. YC is supported by the EC Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship grant no. 703916. FMV acknowledges support from STFC under grant ST/R000638/1. DA is supported by the Royal Society. TB and PC acknowledges financial contribution from the agreement ASI-INAF no. 2017-14-H.0.

Funders	Funder number
European Commission
EC Marie Skłodowska-Curie
UK Research and Innovation
Horizon Europe	703916
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)	ST/R000638/1
The Royal Society	2017-14-H.0

Keywords

X-rays: binaries
X-rays: bursts

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science

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10.1093/mnrasl/slaa049

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title = "Discovery of a thermonuclear Type I X-ray burst in infrared: new limits on the orbital period of 4U 1728-34",

abstract = "We report the detection of an infrared burst lagging a thermonuclear Type I X-ray burst from the accreting neutron star (NS) 4U 1728-34 (GX 354-0). Observations were performed simultaneously with XMM-Newton (0.7-12 keV), NuSTAR (3-79 keV), and HAWK-I@VLT (2.2 μm). We measure a lag of 4.75 ± 0.5 s between the peaks of the emission in the two bands. Due to the length of the lag and the shape of the IR burst, we found that the most plausible cause for such a large delay is reprocessing of the Type I burst X-rays by the companion star. The inferred distance between the NS and the companion can be used to constrain the orbital period of the system, which we find to be larger than ∼66 min (or even ≳2 h, for a realistic inclination <75 ◦). This is much larger than the current tentatively estimated period of ∼11 min. We discuss the physical implications on the nature of the binary and conclude that most likely the companion of 4U 1728-34 is a helium star.",

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AU - Cavecchi, Y

AU - Casella, P

AU - Migliari, S

AU - Altamirano, D

AU - Belloni, T

AU - Diaz-Trigo, M

PY - 2020/6/11

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N2 - We report the detection of an infrared burst lagging a thermonuclear Type I X-ray burst from the accreting neutron star (NS) 4U 1728-34 (GX 354-0). Observations were performed simultaneously with XMM-Newton (0.7-12 keV), NuSTAR (3-79 keV), and HAWK-I@VLT (2.2 μm). We measure a lag of 4.75 ± 0.5 s between the peaks of the emission in the two bands. Due to the length of the lag and the shape of the IR burst, we found that the most plausible cause for such a large delay is reprocessing of the Type I burst X-rays by the companion star. The inferred distance between the NS and the companion can be used to constrain the orbital period of the system, which we find to be larger than ∼66 min (or even ≳2 h, for a realistic inclination <75 ◦). This is much larger than the current tentatively estimated period of ∼11 min. We discuss the physical implications on the nature of the binary and conclude that most likely the companion of 4U 1728-34 is a helium star.

AB - We report the detection of an infrared burst lagging a thermonuclear Type I X-ray burst from the accreting neutron star (NS) 4U 1728-34 (GX 354-0). Observations were performed simultaneously with XMM-Newton (0.7-12 keV), NuSTAR (3-79 keV), and HAWK-I@VLT (2.2 μm). We measure a lag of 4.75 ± 0.5 s between the peaks of the emission in the two bands. Due to the length of the lag and the shape of the IR burst, we found that the most plausible cause for such a large delay is reprocessing of the Type I burst X-rays by the companion star. The inferred distance between the NS and the companion can be used to constrain the orbital period of the system, which we find to be larger than ∼66 min (or even ≳2 h, for a realistic inclination <75 ◦). This is much larger than the current tentatively estimated period of ∼11 min. We discuss the physical implications on the nature of the binary and conclude that most likely the companion of 4U 1728-34 is a helium star.

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Discovery of a thermonuclear Type I X-ray burst in infrared: new limits on the orbital period of 4U 1728-34

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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