OAO1657-415 is only the seventh eclipsing X-ray pulsar known and therefore has the potential to yield only the seventh mass of a neutron star in an X-ray binary. Here we report photometric and spectroscopic observations of candidates for the optical counterpart to the system and identify a B6V or B5III star as a possible companion to the neutron star. We measure the observational parameters of the star and suggest reasons why OAO1657-415 may be unlike other high mass X-ray binaries.
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0011401,
title = {OAO1657-415 : A `Missing Link' in High Mass X-ray Binaries?},
author = {D. H. Maxwell and A. J. Norton and P. Roche},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0011401},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
5 pages, 5 figures, to be published in 'Evolution of binary and multiple star systems', proceedings of conference, Bormio