An SS433 flare caught by TESS. Fast rise times and evidence for a 13 hours quasi-period

Abstract

SS433 is an exotic Galactic microquasar in which there is a supercritical inflow of matter into a compact object of likely black hole nature. Here we report on an SS433 flare that occurred during a TESS observation of Sector 54 in June of 2022. The flare lasted for about 10 days and culminated in a flux increase by a factor of three relative to quiescence. The unprecedented continuous photometric coverage of the flare afforded by TESS shows that the flux can rise and fall by up to a factor of two within 4 to 7 hours. Furthermore, there is evidence that the flare peaks occur with a quasi-period $P_{\mathrm{QPO}}=13.3$ hours. The flare can be most naturally explained by accretion rate ($\dot{M}$) variations due to oscillations in the donor star mass loss rate. We estimate $\dot{M}$ variations up to a factor of two with an increase in the photospheric radius of the accretion disk by about the same factor, implying that a transient ``common envelope'' enshrouds the binary system during the flares. If the flares are due to radial pulsations in the donor star envelope then their quasi-period $P_{\mathrm{QPO}}$ could imply a mean density $⟨\rho ⟩\sim 18\text{ kg}{\text{ m}}^{-3}$ for the donor star, compared to $⟨{\rho }_{\mathrm{RL}}⟩=0.7-1\text{ kg}{\text{ m}}^{-3}$ for a synchronized Roche-lobe filling donor star. Another SS433 lightcurve from a Sector 80 TESS observation in 2024 hints that there may be an outflow from behind the donor star.

Submitted to the Open Journal of Astrophysics