Hard-state optical wind during the discovery outburst of the black-hole X-ray dipper MAXI J1803-298

Abstract

We present twelve epochs of optical spectroscopy taken across the discovery outburst of the black hole candidate MAXI J1803-298 with the GTC and VLT telescopes. The source followed a standard outburst evolution with hard and soft states. The system displays a triangular shape in the hardness intensity diagram, consistent with that seen in high inclination black hole transients and the previously reported detection of X-ray dips. The two epochs observed during the initial hard state exhibited asymmetric emission line profiles, including a P-Cygni profile simultaneously detected in H-alpha and He I 6678, which indicates the presence of an optical wind in the system. The remaining spectra, obtained during the transition to the soft state and the subsequent decay, are instead characterized by narrower, double peaked emission lines embedded into broad absorption components. One epoch (intermediate state) also includes near-infrared coverage, revealing complex line profiles in the Paschen and Bracket series, which suggests that the outflow is still present during the outburst decay through the soft state. The growing list of low-mass X-ray binaries with optical and near-infrared outflow signatures indicates that these are common features. Furthermore, the lowest luminosity spectrum exhibits an H-alpha full-width-at-half-maximum of 1570 +- 100 km/s. This, together with previous constraints on the binary parameters, allows us to favor a compact object mass of ~ 3-10 Msun, further supporting its black hole nature.

10 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters on the 23rd of January 2022

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Cited by in corpus (21)

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• Simultaneous X-ray and optical spectroscopy of V404 Cygni supports the multi-phase nature of X-ray binary accretion disc winds
• The current state of disk wind observations in BHLMXBs through X-ray absorption lines in the iron band
• Outflows and spectral evolution in the eclipsing AMXP SWIFT J1749.4-2807 with NICER, XMM-Newton and NuSTAR
• The origin of optical emission lines in the soft state of X-ray binary outbursts: the case of MAXI J1820+070
• Timing Analysis of a New Black Hole Candidate MAXI J1803-298 with Insight-HXMT and NICER
• Impact of the disk magnetization on MHD disk wind signature
• Optical and near-infrared spectroscopy of the black hole transient 4U 1543-47 during its 2021 ultra-luminous state
• Reflection and timing study of the transient black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1803-298 with NuSTAR
• Supermassive Black Hole Winds in X-rays: SUBWAYS. II. HST UV spectroscopy of winds at intermediate redshifts
• An Overview of Compact Star Populations and Some of Its Open Problems
• Discovery and Long-term Broadband X-ray monitoring of Galactic Black Hole Candidate MAXI J1803-298
• Ask The Machine: Systematic detection of wind-type outflows in low-mass X-ray binaries
• Variable ionized disk wind in MAXI J1803-298 revealed by NICER
• Unveiling optical signatures of outflows in accreting white dwarfs
• Evidence of mutually exclusive outflow forms from a black hole X-ray binary
• Accretion disc winds in X-ray binaries
• Ubiquitous yet forgotten: broad absorptions in the optical spectra of low-mass X-ray binaries
• Tracking optical variability and outflows across the accretion states of the black hole transient MAXI J1820+070
• A Diagnostic Kit for Optical Emission Lines Shaped by Accretion Disc Winds
• A search for optical counterparts in quiescent black hole X-ray transients