Discovery and Identification of MAXI J1621-501 as a Type i X-Ray Burster with a Super-orbital Period

  • Nicholas M. Gorgone
  • , Chryssa Kouveliotou
  • , Hitoshi Negoro
  • , Ralph A.M.J. Wijers
  • , Enrico Bozzo
  • , Sylvain Guiriec
  • , Peter Bult
  • , Daniela Huppenkothen
  • , Ersin Göǧüş
  • , Arash Bahramian
  • , Jamie Kennea
  • , Justin D. Linford
  • , James Miller-Jones
  • , Matthew G. Baring
  • , Paz Beniamini
  • , Deepto Chakrabarty
  • , Jonathan Granot
  • , Charles Hailey
  • , Fiona A. Harrison
  • , Dieter H. Hartmann
  • Wataru Iwakiri, Lex Kaper, Erin Kara, Simona Mazzola, Katsuhiro Murata, Daniel Stern, John A. Tomsick, Alexander J.Van Der Horst, George A. Younes

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

MAXI J1621-501 is the first Swift/XRT Deep Galactic Plane Survey transient that was followed up with a multitude of space missions (NuSTAR, Swift, Chandra, NICER, INTEGRAL, and MAXI) and ground-based observatories (Gemini, IRSF, and ATCA). The source was discovered with MAXI on 2017 October 19 as a new, unidentified transient. Further observations with NuSTAR revealed two Type I X-ray bursts, identifying MAXI J1621-501 as a low mass x-ray binary with a neutron star primary. Overall, 24 Type I bursts were detected from the source during a 15 month period. At energies below 10 keV, the source spectrum was best fit with three components: an absorbed blackbody with kT = 2.3 keV, a cutoff power law with index Γ = 0.7, and an emission line centered on 6.3 keV. Timing analysis of the X-ray persistent emission and burst data has not revealed coherent pulsations from the source or an orbital period. We identified, however, a super-orbital period ∼78 days in the source X-ray light curve. This period agrees very well with the theoretically predicted radiative precession period of ∼82 days. Thus, MAXI J1621-501 joins a small group of sources characterized with super-orbital periods.

Original languageEnglish
Article number168
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume884
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 20 Oct 2019

Bibliographical note

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© 2019. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..

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