The Orbit and Position of the X-ray Pulsar XTE J1855-026 - an Eclipsing Supergiant System

A pulse timing orbit has been obtained for the X-ray binary XTE J1855-026 using observations made with the Proportional Counter Array on board the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. The mass function obtained of ~16Mo together with the detection of an extended near-total eclipse confirm that the primary star is a supergiant as predicted. The orbital eccentricity is found to be very low with a best fit value of 0.04 +/- 0.02. The orbital period is also refined to be 6.0724 +/- 0.0009 days using an improved and extended light curve obtained with RXTE's All Sky Monitor. Observations with the ASCA satellite provide an improved source location of R.A. = 18h 55m 31.3s}, decl. = -02o 36' 24.0" (2000) with an estimated systematic uncertainty of less than 12". A serendipitous new source, AX J1855.4-0232, was also discovered during the ASCA observations.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

The binary period and outburst behaviour of the SMC X-ray binary pulsar system SXP504

A probable binary period has been detected in the optical counterpart to the X-ray source CXOU J005455.6-724510 = RX J0054.9-7245 = AXJ0054.8-7244 = SXP504 in the Small Magellanic Cloud. This source was detected by Chandra on 04 Jul 2002 and subsequently observed by XMM-Newton on 18 Dec 2003. The source is coincident with an Optical Gravitational Lensing (OGLE) object in the lightcurves of which several optical outburst peaks are visible at ~ 268 day intervals. Timing analysis shows a period of 268.6 +/- 0.1 days at > 99% significance. Archival Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) data for the 504s pulse-period has revealed detections which correspond closely with predicted or actual peaks in the optical data. The relationship between this orbital period and the pulse period of 504s is within the normal variance found in the Corbet diagram.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS. 1 LATEX page. 4 figure

Historical changes in the phenology of British Odonata are related to climate

Responses of biota to climate change take a number of forms including distributional shifts, behavioural changes and life history changes. This study examined an extensive set of biological records to investigate changes in the timing of life history transitions (specifically emergence) in British Odonata between 1960 and 2004. The results show that there has been a significant, consistent advance in phenology in the taxon as a whole over the period of warming that is mediated by life history traits. British odonates significantly advanced the leading edge (first quartile date) of the flight period by a mean of 1.51 ±0.060 (SEM, n=17) days per decade or 3.08±1.16 (SEM, n=17) days per degree rise in temperature when phylogeny is controlled for. This study represents the first review of changes in odonate phenology in relation to climate change. The results suggest that the damped temperature oscillations experienced by aquatic organisms compared with terrestrial organisms are sufficient to evoke phenological responses similar to those of purely terrestrial taxa

A major outburst from the X-ray binary RX J0520.5-6932

We report on the analysis of 8 years of MAssive Compact Halo Objects (MACHO) data for the source RX J0520.5-6932. A regular period of 24.4 days has been confirmed, however this is manifest almost entirely in the red part of the spectrum. A major outburst, lasting approximately 200 days, was observed which increased the apparent brightness of the object by approximately 0.15 magnitudes without significantly altering its V-R colour index. This outburst was also seen in X-ray data. The evidence from this analysis points to the identification of this object as a Be/X-ray binary with a periodically variable circumstellar disk and a very early optical counterpart.Comment: Paper has been accepted by MNRA

Discovery of a 75 day orbit in XTE J1543-568

Dedicated monitoring of the transient X-ray pulsar XTE J1543-568 during the first year after its discovery has revealed the unambiguous detection of a binary orbit. The orbital period is 75.56+/-0.25 d, and the projected semi-major axis 353+/-8 lt-sec. The mass function and position in the pulse period versus orbital period diagram are consistent with XTE J1543-568 being a Be X-ray binary. The eccentricity of less than 0.03 (2 sigma) is among the lowest for the 12 Be X-ray binaries whose orbits have now been measured. This confirms the suspicion that small kick velocities of neutron stars during supernovae are more common than expected. The distance is estimated to be larger than 10 kpc, and the luminosity at least 1E37 erg/s.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Discovery of 16.6 and 25.5 s Pulsations from the Small Magellanic Cloud

We report the serendipitous detection of two previously unreported pulsars from the direction of the Small Magellanic Cloud, with periods of 16.6 and 25.5 seconds. The detections are based on archival PCA data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). The observation leading to these detections occurred in September 2000 extending over 2.1 days with an exposure of 121 ks. A possible identification of the 16.6 s pulsar with an X-ray source RX J0051.8-7310 seen by both ROSAT and ASCA imaging X-ray satellites is presented.Comment: 9 pages with 3 figures. Submitted to ApJ Letter

XMM-Newton discovery of transient X-ray pulsar in NGC 1313

We report on the discovery and analysis of the transient X-ray pulsar XMMU J031747.5-663010 detected in the 2004 November 23 XMM-Newton observation of the spiral galaxy NGC 1313. The X-ray source exhibits pulsations with a period P~765.6 s and a nearly sinusoidal pulse shape and pulsed fraction ~38% in the 0.3-7 keV energy range. The X-ray spectrum of XMMU J031747.5-663010 is hard and is well fitted with an absorbed simple power law of photon index ~1.5 in the 0.3-7 keV energy band. The X-ray properties of the source and the absence of an optical/UV counterpart brighter than 20 mag allow us to identify XMMU J031747.5-663010 as an accreting X-ray pulsar located in NGC 1313. The estimated absorbed 0.3-7 keV luminosity of the source L~1.6\times 10^{39} ergs/s, makes it one of the brightest X-ray pulsars known. Based on the relatively long pulse period and transient behaviour of the source, we classify it as a Be binary X-ray pulsar candidate. XMMU J031747.5-663010 is the second X-ray pulsar detected outside the Local Group, after transient 18 s pulsating source CXOU J073709.1+653544 discovered in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 2403.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Updated to match the accepted versio

Multi-wavelength observations of Galactic hard X-ray sources discovered by INTEGRAL. I. The nature of the companion star

Context: The INTEGRAL hard X-ray observatory has revealed an emerging population of highly obscured X-ray binary systems through multi-wavelength observations. Previous studies have shown that many of these sources are high-mass X-ray binaries hosting neutron stars orbiting around luminous and evolved companion stars. Aims: To better understand this newly-discovered population, we have selected a sample of sources for which an accurate localisation is available to identify the stellar counterpart and reveal the nature of the companion star and of the binary system. Methods: We performed an intensive study of a sample of thirteen INTEGRAL sources, through multi-wavelength optical to NIR photometric and spectroscopic observations, using EMMI and SofI instruments at the ESO NTT telescope. We performed accurate astrometry and identified candidate counterparts for which we give the optical and NIR magnitudes. We detected many spectral lines allowing us to determine the spectral type of the companion star. We fitted with stellar black bodies the mid-infrared to optical spectral energy distributions of these sources. From the spectral analysis and SED fitting we identified the nature of the companion stars and of the binary systems. (abridged).Comment: A&A in press; The official date of acceptance is 15/12/2007; 25 pages, 6 figures, 8 tables. New version with language editing required by edito