A possible solution of the puzzling variation of the orbital period of MXB 1659-298

Abstract

MXB 1659-298 is a transient neutron star Low-Mass X-ray binary system that shows eclipses with a periodicity of 7.1 hr. The source went to outburst in August 2015 after 14 years of quiescence. We investigate the orbital properties of this source with a baseline of 40 years obtained combining the eight eclipse arrival times present in literature with 51 eclipse arrival times collected during the last two outbursts. A quadratic ephemeris does not fit the delays associated with the eclipse arrival times and the addition of a sinusoidal term with a period of $2.31\pm 0.02$ yr is required. We infer a binary orbital period of $P=7.1161099(3)$ hr and an orbital period derivative of $\dot{P}=-8.5(1.2)\times 10^{-12}$ s s${}^{-1}$. We show that the large orbital period derivative can be explained with a highly non conservative mass transfer scenario in which more than 98\% of the mass provided by the companion star leaves the binary system. We predict an orbital period derivative value of $\dot{P}=-6(3)\times 10^{-12}$ s s${}^{-1}$ and constrain the companion star mass between $\sim$0.3 and $0.9\pm 0.3$ M${}_{\odot }$. Assuming that the companion star is in thermal equilibrium the periodic modulation can be due to either a gravitational quadrupole coupling due to variations of the oblateness of the companion star or with the presence of a third body of mass M${}_3>21$ Jovian masses.

10 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (12)

• Thermonuclear (type-I) X-ray bursts observed by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer
• Orbital Evolution of an Accreting Millisecond Pulsar: Witnessing the Banquet of a Hidden Black Widow?
• Cooling of the crust in the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary MXB 1659-29
• New ephemeris of the ADC source 2A 1822-371: a stable orbital-period derivative over 30 years
• Eclipse Timings of the Transient Low Mass X-ray Binary EXO0748-676. IV. The Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer Eclipses
• Timing of the 2008 Outburst of SAX J1808.4-3658 with XMM-Newton: A Stable Orbital Period Derivative over Ten Years
• Timing of the accreting millisecond pulsar SAX J1748.9-2021 during its 2015 outburst
• A possible cyclotron resonance scattering feature near 0.7 keV in X1822-371
• Detailed study of the X-ray and Optical/UV orbital ephemeris of X1822-371
• X-Ray Eclipse Time Delays in 4U2129+47
• Measuring the orbital periods of low mass X-ray binaries in the X-ray band
• Possible Magnetic Activity in the Low Mass X-ray Binary EXO 0748-676

Cited by in corpus (21)

• Low-Mass X-ray Binaries
• Evidence for mass-dependent peculiar velocities in compact object binaries: Towards better constraints on natal kicks
• An Observationally-Derived Kick Distribution for Neutron Stars in Binary Systems
• Consistent accretion-induced heating of the neutron-star crust in MXB 1659-29 during two different outbursts
• SWIFT J1756.9-2508: spectral and timing properties of its 2018 outburst
• Non-conservative mass transfer in stellar evolution and the case of V404 Cyg/GS 2023+338
• Broadband spectral analysis of MXB 1659-298 in its soft and hard state
• Measuring masses in low mass X-ray binaries via X-ray spectroscopy: the case of MXB 1659-298
• On the peculiar long-term orbital evolution of the eclipsing accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar SWIFT J1749.4-2807
• Spectral Evolution of Ultraluminous X-ray Pulsar NGC 300 ULX-1
• Evolution of the disc atmosphere in the X-ray binary MXB 1659-298, during its 2015-2017 outburst
• Gapless neutron superfluidity in the crust of the accreting neutron stars KS 1731-260 and MXB 1659-29
• Spectroscopic modelling of four neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries using CLOUDY
• The puzzling orbital residuals of XTE J1710-281: is a Jovian planet orbiting around the binary system?
• X-ray view of emission lines in optical spectra: Spectral analysis of the two low-mass X-ray binary systems Swift J1357.2-0933 and MAXI J1305-704
• Updated Orbital Ephemeris and Detection of Superhump Modulation in X-ray Band for the Ultra-Compact Low Mass X-ray Binary 4U 1820-30
• An apparent positive relation between spin and orbital angular momentum in X-ray binaries
• A large population of neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries with long outburst recurrence time ?
• Time Domain Astronomy with the THESEUS Satellite
• Recurrent Instability in LMXB Accretion Disks: How Strange is GRS 1915+105?
• The 2025 outburst of IGR J17511-3057: timing and spectral insights from NICER and NuSTAR