Bibcode
González Hernández, J. I.; Suárez-Andrés, L.; Rebolo, R.; Casares, J.
Referencia bibliográfica
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Volume 465, Issue 1, p.L15-L19
Fecha de publicación:
2
2017
Número de citas
27
Número de citas referidas
23
Descripción
We present new medium-resolution spectroscopic observations of the black
hole X-ray binary Nova Muscae 1991 taken with X-Shooter spectrograph
installed at the 8.2-m VLT telescope. These observations allow us to
measure the time of inferior conjunction of the secondary star with the
black hole in this system that, together with previous measurements,
yield an orbital period decay of dot{P}=-20.7± 12.7 ms
yr-1 (-24.5 ± 15.1 μs per orbital cycle). This is
significantly faster than those previously measured in the other black
hole X-ray binaries A0620-00 and XTE J1118+480. No standard black hole
X-ray binary evolutionary model is able to explain this extremely fast
orbital decay. At this rate, the secondary star would reach the event
horizon (as given by the Schwarzschild radius of about 32 km) in roughly
2.7 Myr. This result has dramatic implications on the evolution and
lifetime of black hole X-ray binaries.
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