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Studying the H-alpha line of the B[ e ] supergiant binary GG Carinae using high-cadence optical spectroscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 December 2019

Augustus Porter Open the ORCID record for Augustus Porter [Opens in a new window] ,
Katherine Blundell  and
Steven Lee
Augustus Porter
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom email: augustus.porter@physics.ox.ac.uk
Katherine Blundell
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom email: augustus.porter@physics.ox.ac.uk
Steven Lee
Affiliation:
Anglo-Australian Telescope, Coonabarabran NSW 2357, Australia
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Abstract

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We present a case study of GG Carinae (GG Car), a Galactic B[ e ] supergiant binary having significant eccentricity (0.28), based on Global Jet Watch spectroscopy data which has been collecting high-time-sampled optical spectra since early 2015. GG Car has so far not been observed in the X-ray band, however it is of similar phenomenology to known X-ray binaries and may therefore be an obscured X-ray source. We have discovered that the absorption component of the H-alpha line displays a ∼62-478-day period in both equivalent width and wavelength centroid indicating cycles in the dynamics of the circumstellar environment, such as precession of the circumbinary or circumprimary disk. Circumbinary disk precession is an as-of-yet underexplored origin of super-orbital variations in the X-ray flux of X-ray binaries, since the rate of precession is generally much longer than the orbital period of the inner binary.

Keywords

stars: binaries - stars: emission-lineBe - stars: supergiants - stars: individual: GG Car
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 14 , Symposium S346: High-mass X-ray Binaries: Illuminating the Passage from Massive Binaries to Merging Compact Objects , August 2018 , pp. 123 - 124
Copyright
© International Astronomical Union 2019 

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