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Parameters of irradiated accretion disks from optical and X-ray observations of GS 1826-238

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Abstract

We show that the set of observational characteristics for low-mass X-ray binaries in the optical and X-ray bands can be explained in terms of the model of an optically thick accretion disk with an atmosphere irradiated by a central X-ray source. We show that this set of observational data can be successfully used to measure the orbital inclination of a binary, the geometric parameters of its accretion disk, and the reprocessing time of X-emission to optical one. For the burster GS 1826-238, a low-mass X-ray binary with a neutron star, we have estimated the binary inclination and the thickness of the disk atmosphere at the outer edge from the mean optical flux and the amplitude of periodic modulations in the optical light curve: i = 62.5° ± 5.5° and H d/R d = 0.145 ± 0.009. The optical response time of the binary to an X-ray burst disagrees with the geometric delay in the propagation of X-ray photons in the binary. We believe that this points to a finite X-ray reprocessing/reradiation time, 1.0 s ≲ τ repr ≲ 2.2 s, in the hot atmosphere above the accretion disk.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Space Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya ul. 84/32, Moscow, 117997, Russia

    A. V. Mescheryakov, M. G. Revnivtsev & E. V. Filippova

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  1. A. V. Mescheryakov
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  2. M. G. Revnivtsev
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  3. E. V. Filippova
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Correspondence to A. V. Mescheryakov.

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Original Russian Text © A.V. Mescheryakov, M.G. Revnivtsev, E.V. Filippova, 2011, published in Pis’ma v Astronomicheskiĭ Zhurnal, 2011, Vol. 37, No. 12, pp. 892–910.

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Mescheryakov, A.V., Revnivtsev, M.G. & Filippova, E.V. Parameters of irradiated accretion disks from optical and X-ray observations of GS 1826-238. Astron. Lett. 37, 826–844 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063773711120073

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