Prospecting Period Measurements with LSST - Low Mass X-ray Binaries as a Test Case

Abstract

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will provide for unbiased sampling of variability properties of objects with $r$ mag $<$ 24. This should allow for those objects whose variations reveal their orbital periods ($P_{orb}$), such as low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) and related objects, to be examined in much greater detail and with uniform systematic sampling. However, the baseline LSST observing strategy has temporal sampling that is not optimised for such work in the Galaxy. Here we assess four candidate observing strategies for measurement of $P_{orb}$ in the range 10 minutes to 50 days. We simulate multi-filter quiescent LMXB lightcurves including ellipsoidal modulation and stochastic flaring, and then sample these using LSST's operations simulator (OpSim) over the (mag, $P_{orb}$) parameter space, and over five sightlines sampling a range of possible reddening values. The percentage of simulated parameter space with correctly returned periods ranges from $\sim$23 %, for the current baseline strategy, to $\sim$70 % for the two simulated specialist strategies. Convolving these results with a $P_{orb}$ distribution, a modelled Galactic spatial distribution and reddening maps, we conservatively estimate that the most recent version of the LSST baseline strategy will allow $P_{orb}$ determination for $\sim$18 % of the Milky Way's LMXB population, whereas strategies that do not reduce observations of the Galactic Plane can improve this dramatically to $\sim$32 %. This increase would allow characterisation of the full binary population by breaking degeneracies between suggested $P_{orb}$ distributions in the literature. Our results can be used in the ongoing assessment of the effectiveness of various potential cadencing strategies.

arXiv commentReplacement after addressing minor corrections from the referee - mainly improvements in clarification

References in corpus (21)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• Measuring Reddening with SDSS Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating SFD
• Mass models of the Milky Way
• An Overview of the Performance and Scientific Results from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO)
• BlackCAT: A catalogue of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray transients
• A catalogue of low-mass X-ray binaries in the Galaxy, LMC, and SMC (Fourth edition)
• The Milky Way in X-rays for an outside observer: Log(N)-Log(S) and Luminosity Function of X-ray binaries from RXTE/ASM data
• The distances to Galactic low-mass X-ray binaries: consequences for black hole luminosities and kicks
• Periodograms for Multiband Astronomical Time Series
• Mass Measurements of Stellar and Intermediate Mass Black-Holes
• A Cluster of Black Holes at the Galactic Center
• Identification of the donor in the X-ray binary GRS 1915+105
• Gaia DR2 Distances and Peculiar Velocities for Galactic Black Hole Transients
• The Galactic distribution of X-ray binaries and its implications for compact object formation and natal kicks
• 3D outer bulge structure from near infrared star counts
• The Lynx Mission Concept Study Interim Report
• The Zwicky Transient Facility
• Hibernating black holes revealed by photometric mass functions
• Selection Effects on the Orbital Period Distribution of Low Mass Black Hole X-ray Binaries
• A feasibility study on the photometric detection of quiescent black hole X-ray binaries
• eROSITA on SRG: a X-ray all-sky survey mission

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Astrometric excess noise in Gaia DR2 and the search for X-ray emitting binaries
• Astrometric excess noise in Gaia EDR3 and the search for X-ray binaries
• Orbital period dependent spatial scatter of Galactic Black Hole Transients
• Preparing to discover the unknown with Rubin LSST -- I: Time domain
• Predicting the self-lensing population in optical surveys
• Puzzling Blue Dips in the Black Hole Candidate Swift J1357.2-0933, from ULTRACAM, SALT, ATCA, Swift and NuSTAR
• LSST Survey Strategy in the Galactic Plane and Magellanic Clouds
• Detecting long-period variability in SDSS Stripe 82 standards catalog
• The Plane's The Thing: The Case for Wide-Fast-Deep Coverage of the Galactic Plane and Bulge