Spitzer Observations of Black Hole Low-mass X-ray Binaries: Assessing the Non-stellar Infrared Component

July 2010 • 2010ApJ...718....1G

Authors • Gelino, Dawn M. • Gelino, Christopher R. • Harrison, Thomas E.

Abstract • We have combined ground-based optical and near-infrared data with Spitzer Space Telescope mid-infrared data for five black hole (BH) soft X-ray transients (SXTs) in order to determine the levels of near- and mid-infrared emission from sources other than the secondary star. Mid-infrared emission from an accretion disk, circumbinary dust, and/or a jet could act as sources of near-infrared contamination, thereby diluting ellipsoidal variations of the secondary star and affecting determined BH mass estimates. Based on optical to mid-infrared spectral energy distribution modeling of the five SXTs along with the prototype, V616 Mon, we detected mid-infrared excesses in half of the systems, and suggest that the excesses detected from these systems arise from non-thermal synchrotron jets rather than circumbinary dust disks.

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• SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbo.pl?bibcode=2010ApJ...718....1G
• PDF https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/718/1/1/pdf
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• DATA http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/W3Browse/biblink.pl?code=2010ApJ...718....1G
• DATA https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/bibdata/2010/G/2010ApJ...718....1G.html
• ELECTR https://doi.org/10.1088%2F0004-637X%2F718%2F1%2F1