Doran, R.

Lewis, F.

Roberts, S.

Russell, D.M.

English

We observed the new X-ray transient, MAXI J0556-332 (ATel #3102, #3103, #3104, #3106, #3110, #3112) with the Faulkes Telescope South on 17 and 18 January 2011 (MJD 55578.4 and 55579.5). On each date, three 200-sec exposures were taken; one each in Bessel V, R, and I bands, totalling six images. The suggested optical counterpart (ATel #3103) was confirmed (ATel #3104) by a brightening and the detection of hydrogen and helium emission lines in its spectra

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UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl)UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository)Optical observations of MAXI J0556-332 and an indication of a probable neutronstar primaryRussell, D.M.; Lewis, F.; Doran, R.; Roberts, S.Publication date2011Document VersionFinal published versionPublished inThe astronomer's telegramLicenseUnspecifiedLink to publicationCitation for published version (APA):Russell, D. M., Lewis, F., Doran, R., & Roberts, S. (2011). Optical observations of MAXIJ0556-332 and an indication of a probable neutron star primary. The astronomer's telegram,3116. https://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=3116General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s)and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an opencontent license (like Creative Commons).Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, pleaselet the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the materialinaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letterto: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Youwill be contacted as soon as possible.Download date:31 Aug 2023ATel #3116: Optical observations of MAXI J0556-332 and an indication of a probable neutron star primaryhttps://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=3116[24-7-2023 14:48:48]ATel OnPatreonMastodonTwitterPost | Search | PoliciesCredential | Feeds | Email24 Jul 2023; 12:48 UTThis space for free for your conference.[ Previous | Next | ADS  ]Optical observations of MAXI J0556-332 and anindication of a probable neutron star primaryATel #3116; David M. Russell (Univ. of Amsterdam), Fraser Lewis (FaulkesTelescope Project, Open Univ., Univ. of Glamorgan), Rosa Doran (EU-Hands onUniverse), Sarah Roberts (Faulkes Telescope Project, Univ. of Glamorgan)on 20 Jan 2011; 12:59 UTCredential Certification: David M. Russell (D.M.Russell@uva.nl)Subjects: Optical, X-ray, Binary, Star, TransientReferred to by ATel #: 3119, 3327, 3349, 3650, 4524, 8517, 8854, 13631, 14195TweetWe observed the new X-ray transient, MAXI J0556-332 (ATel #3102, #3103, #3104,#3106, #3110, #3112) with the Faulkes Telescope South on 17 and 18 January 2011(MJD 55578.4 and 55579.5). On each date, three 200-sec exposures were taken; oneeach in Bessel V, R, and I bands, totalling six images. The suggested optical counterpart(ATel #3103) was confirmed (ATel #3104) by a brightening and the detection ofhydrogen and helium emission lines in its spectra. We detect the counterpart and report magnitudes (calibrated using several USNO-B1/NOMAD catalogue stars in the field of view) of V ~ 16.7, R ~ 17.0, I ~ 16.5 on 17 Janand V ~ 16.9, R ~ 17.1, I ~ 16.6 on 18 Jan. These values may suffer from filter-dependent systematic errors of several tenths of a magnitude due to uncertainties in theUSNO-B1/NOMAD field star magnitudes. The optical counterpart had thereforecontinued to brighten by ~ 0.8 mag in the five days between 12 and 17 Jan (ATel#3104), peaking ~ 3 mag above its quiescent level of R ~ 19.9 (USNO-B1). In the 24.9hours between the observations on 17 and 18 Jan the source faded by 0.18 +- 0.03 magin V, 0.14 +- 0.04 mag in R and 0.12 +- 0.03 mag in I-band (getting slightly redder as itfaded). For comparison, a slightly fainter field star changed magnitude by 0.01 +- 0.04between 17 and 18 Jan. Related14195 The neutron star low massX-ray binary MAXI J0556-332is close to quiescence13631 Optical brightening of theneutron star transient MAXIJ0556-33213628 MAXI/GSC detection of 4threnewed activity of thedistant Z-source MAXIJ0556-3328854 X-ray fading and optical/X-ray flaring in the current faintoutburst of MAXI J0556-3328530 Rapid optical decay of theneutron star transient MAXIJ0556-3328517 Optical Faulkes Telescopemonitoring of MAXI J0556-332 caught its rise intooutburst8513 MAXI/GSC detection ofrenewed activity of theneutron star X-ray binaryMAXI J0556-3324524 Re-brightening of MAXIJ0556-332, a transient NS X-ray binary, detected byMAXI/GSC3892 Sub-arcsecond position ofthe the transient 11-Hz X-raypulsar in the GlobularCluster Terzan 5 derivedfrom a Moon occultationobserved by RXTE3714 New X-ray transient outburstin Terzan 53650 MAXI J0556-332 is atransient neutron-star Zsource3349 Discovery of a strongemission line at 0.5 keV inMAXI J0556-332 with theRGS on XMM-Newton3328 Past optical (in)activity ofMAXI J0556-3323327 Rebrightening of MAXIJ0556-3323264 A possible IR counterpart tothe transient X-ray pulsarIGR J17480-2446 in Terzan 53119 Radio detection of MAXIJ0556-332 with the ATCA3116 Optical observations of MAXIJ0556-332 and an indicationof a probable neutron starprimary3112 Changes in the timingproperties of MAXI J0556-ATel #3116: Optical observations of MAXI J0556-332 and an indication of a probable neutron star primaryhttps://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=3116[24-7-2023 14:48:48]The nature of the compact object in this X-ray binary is currently unknown (ATel #3112).Russell et al. 2006, 2007 showed from a compilation of 44 X-ray binaries that black holeand neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) and high-mass X-ray binaries(HMXBs) occupy different regions of an optical/X-ray luminosity diagram (neutron starLMXBs are generally ~ 20 times fainter in optical than black hole LMXBs at the same X-ray luminosity). The X-ray flux measured by Kennea et al. (ATel #3103) was taken just 9hours before the optical observation reported by Halpern (ATel #3104). We calculate theintrinsic X-ray and optical fluxes at this time accounting for interstellar absorptionassuming N_H = 9.8+/-0.6 x 10^20 cm-2 (ATel #3103), the relation between extinctionA_V and N_H of Predehl & Schmitt 1995 and the extinction law of Cardelli et al. 1989.Note that a much higher reported value for the neutral hydrogen column N_H (ATel#3106) was later found to be likely unphysical (ATel #3110). We find that the optical/X-ray ratio of MAXI J0556-332 is typical of a neutron star LMXBat any distance within the galaxy, but is inconsistent with any known black hole source,for any given distance within the galaxy (< 20 kpc). The light curve, optical/X-rayluminosity diagram and finding charts are linked below. If MAXI J0556-332 resides at adistant ~ 20 kpc or further, its optical/X-ray ratio is similar to some black hole LMXBs inthe soft state, but the Swift XRT observations at this time indicated the source was not ina soft state (ATel #3103). We can therefore tentatively conclude that the primary is likelyto be a neutron star in this system, but type I X-ray bursts or a dynamical massmeasurement would be required to confirm this. We thank the participants of the recent EU-HOU teacher training program for helpingwith these observations. The Faulkes Telescope observations are part of an opticalmonitoring project of low-mass X-ray binaries (Lewis et al. 2008). The FaulkesTelescope Project is an educational and research arm of the Las Cumbres ObservatoryGlobal Telescope Network (LCOGTN). DMR acknowledges support from a NetherlandsOrganisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Veni Fellowship. FL acknowledges supportfrom the Dill Faulkes Educational Trust.3323110 Eclipse-like Absorption inMAXI J0556-3323106 RXTE Observes MAXI J0556-3323104 Optical Identification andSpectroscopy of the X-rayTransient MAXI J0556-3323103 MAXI J0556-332: Swift/XRTlocalization3102 MAXI/GSC detects a new X-ray transient MAXI J0556-3323044 Terzan 5 transient IGRJ17480-2446: return ofthermonuclear bursts orwere they always there?3000 Type-II bursts from the newTerzan 5 transient: a GROJ1744-28 analogue?2974 Chandra Identification of theTransient in Terzan 5: Notthe 2000 Transient.2958 Discovery of mHz QPOs andburst rate evolution in theactive Terzan 5 neutron startransient2952 D. Altamirano (Amsterdam),J. Homan (MIT), M. Linares(MIT), A. Patruno(Amsterdam), Y. Yang(Amsterdam), A. Watts(Amsterdam), M. Kalamkar(Amsterdam), P. Casella(Southampton), M. Armas-Padilla (Amsterdam), Y.Cavecchi (Amsterdam), N.Degenaar (Amsterdam), D.Russell (Amsterdam), R.Kaur (Amsterdam), M. vander Klis (Amsterdam), N. Rea(CSIC-IEEC), R. Wijnands(Amsterdam)2946 A Refined Orbital Solutionand the Transient Pulsar inTerzan 5 is Not Eclipsing2940 INTEGRAL and RXTEspectral analysis of IGRJ17480-2446, the newtransient in Terzan 5.2939 A preliminary orbital solutionfor the transient eclipsingpulsar in Terzan 52937 Eclipsing X-ray Burster inTerzan 5: Improved SwiftLocalization2933 The Eclipsing X-ray Bursterin Terzan 5 is Probably Notthe 2000 Transient2932 Discovery of 11 Hz burstoscillations from the 11 HzEclipsing Pulsar in Terzan 52929 EXO 1745-248 is an 11 HzEclipsing Pulsar2924 Further INTEGRALobservations of the transientX-ray burster EXO 1745-2482922 Swift follow-up observationsof EXO 1745-2482920 Swift-XRT location of theongoing Terzan 5 outburst2919 A hard X-ray transient in thedirection of Terzan 5detected by INTEGRAL[ Telegram Index ]R. E. Rutledge, Editor-in-ChiefATel #3116: Optical observations of MAXI J0556-332 and an indication of a probable neutron star primaryhttps://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=3116[24-7-2023 14:48:48]Derek Fox, Editor

Optical observations of MAXI J0556-332 and an indication of a probable neutron star primary

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Optical observations of MAXI J0556-332 and an indication of a probable neutron star primary

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