We present the long-term optical spectroscopic observations on the Be/X-ray binary A0535+26 from 1992 to 2010. Combining with the public V-band photometric data, we find that each giant X-ray outburst occurred in a fading phase of the optical brightness. The anti-correlation between the optical brightness and the Hα intensity during our 2009 observations indicates a mass ejection event had taken place before the 2009 giant X-ray outburst, which might cause the formation of a low-density region in the inner part of the disk. The similar anti-correlation observed around 1996 September indicates the occurrence of the mass ejection, which might trigger the subsequent disk loss event in A0535+26.
@article{arxiv.1111.0715,
title = {Discrete Mass Ejections from the Be/X-ray Binary A0535+26/HD245770},
author = {Jingzhi Yan and Hui Li and Qingzhong Liu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1111.0715},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
16 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal