Related papers: Discrete Mass Ejections from the Be/X-ray Binary A…
Be/X-ray binaries are the most populous class of High Mass X-ray Binaries. Their X-ray duty cycle is tightly related to the optical companion wind activity, which in turn can be studied through optical spectroscopical dedicated…
Using the Zwicky Transient Facility, in 2021 February we identified the first known outburst of the Black Hole X-ray Transient XTE J1859+226 since its discovery in 1999. The outburst was visible at X-ray, UV, and optical wavelengths for…
We report on the results of optical, near-infrared (NIR) and mid-infrared observations of the black hole X-ray binary candidate (BHB) MAXI J1535-571 during its 2017/2018 outburst. During the first part of the outburst (MJD 58004-58012), the…
On 2015 June 15 the burst alert telescope (BAT) on board {\em Swift} detected an X-ray outburst from the black hole transient V404 Cyg. We monitored V404 Cyg for the last 10 years with the 2-m Faulkes Telescope North in three optical bands…
In this paper we report the long-term optical observation of the faint soft X-ray transient SAX J1810.8-2609 from OGLE and MOA. We have focused on the 2007 outburst, and also did the cross-correlate between its optical light curves and the…
A remarkable correlation between the H-alpha emission line and the radio behaviour of LSI+61 303 (V615 Cas, GT 0236+610) over its 4 yr modulation is discovered. The radio outburst peak is shifted by a quarter of the 4 yr modulation period…
The recurring transient outbursts in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) provide us with strong test-beds for constraining the poorly understood accretion process. While impossible to image directly, phase-resolved spectroscopy can provide a…
The candidate black hole X-ray binary Swift J1753.5-0127 faded to quiescence in 2016 November, after a prolonged outburst that was discovered in 2005. Nearly three months later the system displayed renewed activity that lasted through 2017…
We report results from the first simultaneous X-ray (RXTE) and optical (SAAO) observations of the low-mass X-ray binary GS 1826-24 in June 1998. A type-I burst was detected in both X-ray and optical wavelengths. Its energy-dependent…
The emission from the accreting black holes (BHs) in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) covers a broad energy band from radio to X-rays. Studying the correlations between emission in different energy bands during outbursts can provide valuable…
The outbursts of low mass X-ray binaries are prolonged relative to those of dwarf nova cataclysmic variables as a consequence of X-ray irradiation of the disc. We show that the time-scale of the decay light curve and its luminosity at a…
SMC X-2 exhibits X-ray outburst behaviour that makes it one of the most luminous X-ray sources in the Small Magellanic Cloud. In the last decade it has undergone two such massive outbursts - in 2015 and 2022. The first outburst is well…
The first X-ray afterglow for a short (~30 ms), hard gamma-ray burst was detected by Swift on 9 May 2005 (GRB 050509b). No optical or radio counterpart was identified in follow-up observations. The tentative association of the GRB with a…
Using BATSE and RXTE observations from 1991 April to 2001 August we have detected 71 outbursts from 82 periastron passages of EXO 2030+375, a 42-second transient X-ray pulsar with a Be star companion, including several outbursts from 1993…
Accretion of material onto a black hole drags any magnetic fields present inwards, increasing their strength. Theory predicts that sufficiently strong magnetic fields can halt the accretion flow, producing a magnetically arrested disk…
A0535+26 is a slowly rotating pulsar accreting from the wind of a massive Be star, and that exhibits two cyclotron absorption lines in its X-ray spectrum, at about 45 and 100 keV, respectively. Unlike similar sources, no significant…
We investigate the optical emission of the black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1348-630 during its 2019 minioutburst. Using optical data from the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope and X-ray data from Insight-HXMT, we performed time delay…
We present rapid, multiwavelength photometry of the low-mass X-ray binary Swift J1357.2-0933 during its 2017 outburst. Using several sets of quasi-simultaneous ULTRACAM/NTT (optical), NuSTAR (X-ray), XRT/Swift (X-ray), SALT (optical) and…
The Be/X-ray binary A 0535+26 showed a normal (type I) outburst in August 2009. It is the fourth in a series of normal outbursts associated with the periastron, but is unusual by presenting a double-peaked light curve. The two peaks reached…
In 1981, the Be/X-ray binary (Be/XRB) A0538-66 showed outbursts characterized by high peak luminosities in the X-ray and optical bands. The optical outbursts were qualitatively explained as X-ray reprocessing in a gas cloud surrounding the…