The 2022 super-Eddington outburst of the source SMC X-2-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

The 2022 super-Eddington outburst of the source SMC X-2

Published:2024-02-15 Issue:4 Volume:528 Page:7115-7122
ISSN:0035-8711
Container-title:Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
language:en
Short-container-title:

Author:

Coe M J¹^ORCID,Kennea J A²^ORCID,Monageng I M³⁴^ORCID,Townsend L J⁵^ORCID,Buckley D A H³⁴^ORCID,Williams M²,Udalski A⁶,Evans P A⁷^ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Physics & Astronomy, The University of Southampton , Southampton SO17 1BJ , UK

2. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University , 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802 , USA

3. South African Astronomical Observatory , P.O Box 9, Observatory, 7935 Cape Town , South Africa

4. Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town , Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701 , South Africa

5. Southern African Large Telescope , Cape Town , South Africa

6. Astronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw , Al. Ujazdowskie 4, PL-00-478 Warszawa , Poland

7. University of Leicester, X-ray and Observational Astronomy Research Group, School of Physics & Astronomy , University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH , UK

Abstract

ABSTRACT 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 reported in the literature, but the 2022 event has yet to be fully described and discussed. That is the goal of this paper. In particular, the post-peak characteristics of the two events are compared. This reveals clear similarities in decay profiles, believed to be related to different accretion mechanisms occurring at different times as the outbursts evolve. The H α emission line indicates that the Be disc undergoes complex structural variability, with evidence of warping as a result of its interaction with the neutron star. The detailed observations reported here will be important for modelling such interactions in this kind of binary systems.

Funder

NASA

UKSA

NRF

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Link

https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/mnras/stae495/56695569/stae495.pdf

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