| タイトル | The Long-term Light Curves of X-ray Binaries Contain Simultaneous Periodic and Random Components |
| 本文（外部サイト） | http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20030022797 |
| 著者（英） | White, Nicholas E.; Smale, Alan P.; Boyd, Patricia T. |
| 著者所属（英） | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
| 発行日 | 2002-01-01 |
| 言語 | eng |
| 内容記述 | LMC X-3 and Cyg X-2 show large amplitude X-ray fluctuations that have been attributed to a warped accretion disk. Cyg X-3 displays high amplitude, apparently non-periodic oscillations. We reanalyze these systems using RXTE ASM data and time-frequency decomposition techniques. We find that the long-term variations in Cyg X-2 can be completely characterized by excursions whose durations are integer multiples of the orbital period, including one essentially identical to the reported "period" of 78 days. Cyg X-3 can be characterized in terms of integer multiples of a 71-day fundamental period unrelated to the 4.8 day orbital period, but suggestively close to the approximately equal to greater than 60 day reported precession period of the relativistic jet inferred from recent radio observations. The long-term excursions of LMC X-3 are related to each other by rational fractions, suggesting the characteristic time scale is 10.594 days, shorter than any observed excursion to date. We explore the phase space evolution of the light curves using a natural embedding and find that all three systems possess two rotation centers that organize the phase space trajectories, one of low luminosity and the other of high luminosity. The implications of this repeatable behavior on generic models of accretion disk dynamics and mass transfer variability are explored. |
| NASA分類 | Astrophysics |
| 権利 | Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright |
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