Finding periods in the high mass x-ray binary stars of the magellanic clouds
Date
2010-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
High Mass X-Ray Binary Stars (HMXBs) are stars that contain one early-type main sequence or giant star and one of a black hole, neutron star or white dwarf. HMXBs in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) are instructive to study because both galaxies are metal poor in comparison to the Milky Way and they are fairly transparent to both optical and X-ray radiation. This allows a more complete study of the whole population, without the biasing effects of gas and dust that occur in our own Galaxy. The objective of this study was to find the periods of HMXBs in the LMC and SMC with known optical counterparts in the dataset acquired by the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment telescope. Two possible orbital periods were found for the objects XTE J0055-724 and RX J0101.3-7211 of 1724 days and 478 days, respectively. Continued observations are recommended to confirm the two periods.
Description
Keywords
magellanic clouds, x-ray, neutron stars, black holes, high mass x-ray binary star
Citation
Degree
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Department
Physics and Engineering Physics
Program
Physics and Engineering Physics