Correlated Optical and X-ray Variability in LMC X-2
Astrophysics
2009-11-10 v1
Abstract
We have obtained high time resolution (seconds) photometry of LMC X-2 in December 1997, simultaneously with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), in order to search for correlated X-ray and optical variability on timescales from seconds to hours. We find that the optical and X-ray data are correlated only when the source is in a high, active X-ray state. Our analysis shows evidence for the X-ray emission leading the optical with a mean delay of <20s. The timescale for the lag can be reconciled with disc reprocessing, driven by the higher energy X-rays, only by considering the lower limit for the delay. The results are compared with a similar analysis of archival data of Sco X-1.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0307373,
title = {Correlated Optical and X-ray Variability in LMC X-2},
author = {Katherine E. McGowan and Phil A. Charles and Darragh O'Donoghue and Alan P. Smale},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0307373},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
11 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS