Stellar or Non-Stellar Light? Determining Near-Infrared Contamination in Low Mass X-ray Binaries
- Other:
- Stempels, Eric
Abstract
Low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) systems are comprised of a low-mass, K or M dwarflike star orbiting a compact object. Stellar black hole masses and their distributions are important inputs for binary evolution and supernova models. Currently, the main limiting factor in determining accurate black hole masses in LMXBs is the uncertainty of the orbital inclination angle due to an unknown amount of contaminating light in the near infrared. If present, this light dilutes the ellipsoidal variations of the low-mass secondary star, and thus gives the appearance of a lower orbital inclination system. It has been generally thought that the near infrared ellipsoidal light curves of these systems were relatively uncontaminated and represented primarily the light from the low-mass secondary star; however, recent disk and jet models have thrust this thinking into question. We combine our data from the Spitzer Space Telescope with our ground-based optical and near infrared data for several LMXBs to characterize and derive the amount of light contaminating the near-infrared ellipsoidal variations of the low-mass secondary star.
Additional Information
© 2009 American Institute of Physics. Issue Date: 16 February 2009.Attached Files
Published - Gelino2009p8134Cool_Stars_Stellar_Systems_And_The_Sun.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 18198
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20100507-151746289
- Created
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2010-05-07Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)
- Series Name
- AIP Conference Proceedings
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 1094