Published in

American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal, 2(699), p. 1113-1118, 2009

DOI: 10.1088/0004-637x/699/2/1113

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

An ultracompact X-ray binary in the globular cluster NGC 1851

Journal article published in 2009 by D. R. Zurek, C. Knigge ORCID, T. J. Maccarone, A. Dieball, K. S. Long
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Red circle
Preprint: archiving forbidden
Red circle
Postprint: archiving forbidden
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We present far-ultraviolet photometry obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope of the low-mass X-ray binary 4U 0513-40 in the globular cluster NGC 1851. Our observations reveal a clear, roughly sinusoidal periodic signal with $P ≃ 17$ min and amplitude 3%-10%. The signal appears fully coherent and can be modelled as a simple reprocessing effect associated with the changing projected area presented by the irradiated face of a white dwarf donor star in the system. All of these properties suggest that the signal we have detected is orbital in nature, thus confirming 4U 0513-40 as an ultracompact X-ray binary (UCXB). All four confirmed UCXBs in globular clusters have orbital periods below 30 minutes, whereas almost all UCXBs in the Galactic field have orbital periods longer than this. This suggests that the dynamical formation processes dominate UCXB production in clusters, producing a different orbital period distribution than observed among field UCXBs. Based on the likely system parameters, we show that 4U 0513-40 should be a strong gravitational wave source and may be detectable by LISA over the course of a multi-year mission. ; Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, Accepted by ApJ