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Bright Mini-outburst Ends the 12 yr Long Activity of the Black Hole Candidate Swift J1753.5-0127

Authors :
Richard M. Plotkin
Frederick D. Lewis
Jeroen Homan
John A. Tomsick
A. Al Qasim
Rosa Doran
P. A. Charles
D. Maitra
Aarran W. Shaw
Federico Bernardini
J. C. A. Miller-Jones
Joseph D. Gelfand
P. Kobel
D. Perez
Aisha AlMannaei
Jean-Pierre Lasota
Karri I. I. Koljonen
D. M. Russell
Guobao Zhang
Chinese Academy of Sciences
New York University Abu Dhabi
New York University
Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center
University of London
Metsähovi Radio Observatory
University of Alberta
Liverpool John Moores University
University of California Berkeley
Curtin University
Wheaton College
Netherlands Institute for Space Research
University of Southampton
Aalto-yliopisto
Aalto University
Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (IAP)
Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Source :
The Astrophysical Journal, Astrophys.J., Astrophys.J., 2019, 876 (1), pp.5. ⟨10.3847/1538-4357/ab12dd⟩
Publication Year :
2019
Publisher :
IOP PUBLISHING LTD, 2019.

Abstract

We present optical, UV and X-ray monitoring of the short orbital period black hole X-ray binary candidate Swift J1753.5-0127, focusing on the final stages of its 12$-$year long outburst that started in 2005. From September 2016 onward, the source started to fade and within three months, the optical flux almost reached the quiescent level. Soon after that, using a new proposed rebrightening classification method we recorded a mini-outburst and a reflare in the optical light curves, peaking in February (V$\rm\sim$17.0) and May (V$\rm\sim$17.9) 2017, respectively. Remarkably, the mini-outburst has a peak flux consistent with the extrapolation of the slow decay before the fading phase preceding it. The following reflare was fainter and shorter. We found from optical colors that the temperature of the outer disk was $\sim 11$,000 K when the source started to fade rapidly. According to the disk instability model, this is close to the critical temperature when a cooling wave is expected to form in the disk, shutting down the outburst. The optical color could be a useful tool to predict decay rates in some X-ray transients. We notice that all X-ray binaries that show mini-outbursts following a main outburst are short orbital period systems ($<br />Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
0004637X, 15383873, 00046361, 00358711, 00670049, and 00046264
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
The Astrophysical Journal, Astrophys.J., Astrophys.J., 2019, 876 (1), pp.5. ⟨10.3847/1538-4357/ab12dd⟩
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....398417ec3ba097b4366c270688c6ccbb