AAS 199th meeting, Washington, DC, January 2002
Session 95. Accreting Neutron Stars
Display, Wednesday, January 9, 2002, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall

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[95.07] LMC X-2: Hunting the Z

A.P. Smale (USRA, NASA/GSFC), E. Kuulkers (SRON)

We have performed three observations of LMC X-2 with RXTE in 1997 Dec, 2001 Feb, and most recently 2001 Aug-Sep, with further pointings scheduled for late 2001. Based on our results to date (see e.g. Smale & Kuulkers 2000, ApJ, 528, 702) we have developed the working hypothesis that LMC X-2 is a Z-source, spending most of its time in the Flaring Branch with occasional excursions onto the Normal Branch -- behavior reminiscent of the Z-source GX349+2. If confirmed, this would make LMC X-2 the eighth Z-source known and the first outside our Galaxy. We will present a summary of our LMC X-2 campaign, including light curves and color-color diagrams illustrating the two branches and the results of timing and spectral fitting analyses, and discuss our future strategy for resolving the nature of this bright low-mass X-ray binary.


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