Related papers: Optical Modulation in the X-Ray Binary 4U 1543-624…
20 months of observations of the radio emission at 15 GHz from Cygnus X-1, starting in 1996 October, show variations at the binary period of 5.6 days, but with a phase offset from those at X-ray wavelengths. There are also longer-term…
Long-term ("superorbital") periods or modulations have been detected in a wide variety of both low and high-mass X-ray binaries at X-ray and optical wavelengths. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed to account for the variability…
4U 1820-30 is a low-mass X-ray binary near the center of the globular cluster NGC 6624 consisting of, at least, one neutron star and one helium white dwarf. Analyzing 16 years of data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) allows us to…
Ultra-compact X-ray binaries consist of a neutron star or black hole that accretes material from a white dwarf-donor star. The ultra-compact nature is expressed in very short orbital periods of less than 1 hour. In the case of 4U 0614+091…
We present XMM-Newton observations of the 569 sec period system RX J1914+24 (V407 Vul). This period is believed to represent the binary orbital period making it an ultra-compact binary system. By comparing the phase of the rise to maximum…
Regular observations by the All Sky Monitor aboard the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite have yielded well-sampled light-curves with a time baseline of over ten years. We find that up to eight of the sixteen brightest persistent low…
The symbiotic X-ray binary GX 1+4 possesses a number of peculiar properties that have been studied since the early 1970s. In particular, the orbital period has been a point of debate for many years, until radial velocity measurements were…
4U 1556-60 is a low-mass X-ray binary that was discovered more than 50 years ago as a persistent X-ray source; however, very little was known about it. Recently, Gaia obtained a parallax for the optical counterpart that places 4U 1556-60 at…
We present the identification of the optical counterparts to the low-mass X-ray binaries 1A 1246-588 and 4U 1812-12. We determine the X-ray position of 1A 1246-588 from ROSAT/PSPC observations and find within the error circle a blue star…
We present optical spectra in the range 4600 -- 8600 A for three low-mass X-ray binaries which have been suggested to belong to the class of ultra-compact X-ray binaries based on their X-ray spectra. Our spectra show no evidence for…
4U 2129+47 was discovered in the early 80's and classified as an accretion disk corona source due to its broad and partial X-ray eclipses. The 5.24 hr binary orbital period was inferred from the X-ray and optical light curve modulation,…
The X-ray source RX J0806+15 was discovered using ROSAT, and shows an X-ray light curve with a prominent modulation on a period of 321.5 sec. We present optical observations in which we report the detection of its optical counterpart. We…
We present the timing analysis results for our observations of the x-ray dip source X1916-053 conducted with RXTE between February and October of 1996. Our goal was to finally measure the binary period - as either the x-ray dip period or…
We report the detection of a superorbital period in the high-mass X-ray binary 2S 0114+650. Analyses of data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) All-Sky Monitor (ASM) from 1996 January 5 to 2004 August 25 reveal a superorbital…
Long-term X-ray modulations on timescales from tens to hundreds of days have been widely studied for X-ray binaries located in the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds. For other nearby galaxies, only the most luminous X-ray sources can be…
Time-resolved CCD photometry is presented of the V~17 optical counterpart of the newly-discovered, hard-X-ray-emitting polar Swift J2619.4+2619. A total of ~20 hr of data obtained over five nights in various bandpasses (B, V, R, and I)…
We present optical spectroscopy of several (candidate) ultra-compact X-ray binaries (UCXBs) obtained with the ESO VLT and Gemini-North telescopes. In only one of five observed UCXB candidates did we find evidence for H in its spectrum (4U…
Stellar companion of a black hole orbiting in an eccentric orbit will experience modulating tidal force with a periodicity same as that of the orbital period. This, in turn, would modulate accretion rates, and the seed photon flux which are…
A homogeneous set of UBV photometry (354 data points obtained between 1983 and 1998) for the Be/X-ray binary A0535+26 = V725Tau is analysed, aiming to look for possible periodic component(s). After subtraction of the long-term variation it…
We report on time-resolved optical imaging of the X-ray binary SAX J1808.4-3658 during its quiescent state and 2008 outburst. The binary, containing an accretion-powered millisecond pulsar, has a large sinusoidal-like modulation in its…