Open AccessMonitoring the spin up in RX J0806+15
Author(s) -
Hakala Pasi,
Ramsay Gavin,
Byckling Kristiina
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.08074.x
Subject(s) - physics , orbital period , period (music) , binary number , variation (astronomy) , astrophysics , stars , arithmetic , mathematics , acoustics
RX J0806+15 shows a prominent intensity variation on a period of 321.5 s. This has widely been interpreted as the binary orbital period, although this remains controversial. We have been monitoring the precise period of RX J0806+15 for a number of years. By measuring the rate of change we can help distinguish between competing physical models. New observations obtained between 2003 November and 2004 February show that the period decrease already reported by Hakala et al. and by Strohmayer is continuing. We discuss how reliably we can determine the period of RX J0806+15 using our technique and evaluate the current models which have been proposed to account for the observational properties of this source.