2014MNRAS.444..902A -
Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 444, 902-905 (2014/October-2)
Swift J1357.2-0933: the faintest black hole?
ARMAS PADILLA M., WIJNANDS R., DEGENAAR N., MUNOZ-DARIAS T., CASARES J. and FENDER R.P.
Abstract (from CDS):
Swift J1357.2-0933 is a confirmed very faint black hole X-ray transient and has a short estimated orbital period of 2.8 h. We observed Swift J1357.2-0933 for ∼ 50 ks with XMM-Newton in 2013 July during its quiescent state. The source is clearly detected at a 0.5-10 keV unabsorbed flux of ∼ 3x10–15erg/cm2/s. If the source is located at a distance of 1.5 kpc (as suggested in the literature), this would imply a luminosity of ∼ 8x1029erg/s, making it the faintest detected quiescent black hole low-mass X-ray binary. This would also imply that there is no indication of a reversal in the quiescence X-ray luminosity versus orbital period diagram down to 2.8 h, as has been predicted theoretically and recently supported by the detection of the 2.4 h orbital period black hole MAXI J1659-152 at a 0.5-10 keV X-ray luminosity of ∼ 1.2x1031erg/s. However, there is considerable uncertainty in the distance of Swift J1357.2-0933 and it may be as distant as 6.3 kpc. In this case, its quiescent luminosity would be LX ∼ 1.3x1031erg/s, i.e. similar to MAXI J1659-152 and hence, it would support the existence of such a bifurcation period. We also detected the source in optical at r' ∼ 22.3 mag with the Liverpool telescope, simultaneously to our X-ray observation. The X-ray/optical luminosity ratio of Swift J1357.2-0933 agrees with the expected value for a black hole at this range of quiescent X-ray luminosities.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2014 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society (2014)
Journal keyword(s):
accretion, accretion discs - black hole physics - stars: individual: Swift J1357.2-0933 - X-rays: binaries
Simbad objects:
6
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