Dissecting a disk-instability outburst in a symbiotic star: $NuSTAR$, and $Swift$ observations of T Coronae Borealis during the rise to the "super-active" state

Abstract

The current $super-active$ state of the recurrent nova T CrB has been observed with unprecedented detail. Previously published observations provide strong evidence that this state is due to an enhancement of the flow of material through the accretion disk, which increased the optical depth of its most internal region, the boundary layer. $NuSTAR$ and $Swift$ observed T CrB in 2015 September, roughly halfway through the rise to optical maximum. In our analysis of these data, we have found that: $i$) the UV emission, as observed with $Swift$/UVOT in 2015, was already as bright as it became in 2017, after the optical peak; $ii$) the soft X-ray emission (E $\lesssim$ 0.6 keV) observed in 2017 after the optical peak, on the other hand, had not yet developed during the rising phase in 2015; $iii$) the hard X-ray emitting plasma (E $\gtrsim$ 2 keV) had the same temperature and about half the flux of that observed during quiescence in 2006. This phenomenology is akin to that observed during dwarf novae in outburst, but with the changes in the spectral energy distribution happening on a far longer time scale.

Accepted in ApJ

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Accretion Flows in Nonmagnetic White Dwarf Binaries as Observed in X-rays
• Increasing activity in T CrB suggests nova eruption is impending
• XMM-Newton observations of the symbiotic recurrent nova T CrB: evolution of X-ray emission during the active phase
• Resolving the mass transfer in the symbiotic recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis
• T CrB: Radio Observations During the 2016--2017 "Super-Active" State
• Peering into the central region of a nano-quasar: XMM-Newton and Chandra views of the CH Cyg Symbiotic System
• Hydrodynamic simulations of the recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis: Nucleosynthesis predictions