Assisted stellar suicide in V617 Sgr

Abstract

V617 Sgr is a V Sagittae star - a group of binaries thought to be the galactic counterparts of the Compact Binary Supersoft X-ray Sources - CBSS. To check this hypothesis, we measured the time derivative of its orbital period. Observed timings of eclipse minima spanning over 30,000 orbital cycles are presented. We found that the orbital period evolves quite rapidly: P/Pdot = 1.1 x 10^{6} years. This is consistent with the idea that V617 Sgr is a wind driven accretion supersoft source. As the binary system evolves with a time-scale of about one million years, which is extremely short for a low mass evolved binary, it is likely that the system will soon end either by having its secondary completely evaporated or by the primary exploding as a supernova of type Ia.

4 pages, accepted for publication in A&A Letters

References in corpus (2)

• The nature of the supersoft X-ray source RX~J0513--69
• The minimum orbital period in thermal-timescale mass transfer

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae: Binary Stars with White Dwarf Companions
• Formation of Binary Millisecond Pulsars by Accretion-Induced Collapse of White Dwarfs under Wind-Driven Evolution
• CAL 87 - an evolved wind-driven supersoft X-ray binary
• Astrophysics in 2006
• Transient jets in V617 Sagittarii
• The confirmation and revision on the orbital period change of the possible type Ia supernova progenitor V617 Sagittarii