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J.L. Galache (University of Southampton), R.H.D. Corbet (Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA & Universities Science Research Association), S. Laycock (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University), M.J. Coe, W.R.T. Edge (University of Southampton), C.B. Markwardt (Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA & University of Maryland), F.E. Marshall (Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA)
High Mass X-ray Binary (HMXB) systems involving a neutron star orbiting a young, massive star frequently become sources of pulsed X-radiation when the neutron star accretes material from its companion during part, or all of its orbit. There are over 100 such systems currently known, with over one third of them located in the Small Magellanic Cloud, which makes the SMC a perfect study ground for HMXBs.
Our team has been carrying out a weekly monitoring campaign of the SMC with the PCA onboard RXTE since January 1999. In this poster we study the long-term behaviour of the most active systems and discuss the implications for orbital calculations, pulse/orbital period correlations, and the influence of the stellar environment. We also report on the ~35 day orbital period recently discovered for the Be/X-ray system XTE J0055-727.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: jlg@astro.soton.ac.uk
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.