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Kato, M, Saio, H, Henze, M, Ness, J-U, Osborne, JP, Page, KL, Darnley, MJ, Bode, MF, Shafter, AW, Hernanz, M, Gehrels, N, Kennea, J and Hachisu, I (2016) X-Ray Flashes in Recurrent Novae: M31N 2008-12a and the Implications of the Swift Non-detection. ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, 830 (1). ISSN 0004-637X
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Abstract
Models of nova outbursts suggest that an X-ray flash should occur just after hydrogen ignition. However, this X-ray flash has never been observationally confirmed. We present four theoretical light curves of the X-ray flash for two very massive white dwarfs (WDs) of 1.380 and 1.385 M_sun and for two recurrence periods of 0.5 and 1 years. The duration of the X-ray flash is shorter for a more massive WD and for a longer recurrence period. The shortest duration of 14 hours (0.6 days) among the four cases is obtained for the 1.385 M_sun WD with one year recurrence period. In general, a nova explosion is relatively weak for a very short recurrence period, which results in a rather slow evolution toward the optical peak. This slow timescale and the predictability of very short recurrence period novae give us a chance to observe X-ray flashes of recurrent novae. In this context, we report the first attempt, using the Swift observatory, to detect an X-ray flash of the recurrent nova M31N 2008-12a (0.5 or 1 year recurrence period), which resulted in the non-detection of X-ray emission during the period of 8 days before the optical detection. We discuss the impact of these observations on nova outburst theory. The X-ray flash is one of the last frontiers of nova studies and its detection is essentially important to understand the pre-optical-maximum phase. We encourage further observations.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Uncontrolled Keywords: | astro-ph.HE; astro-ph.HE; astro-ph.SR |
| Subjects: | Q Science > QB Astronomy |
| Divisions: | Astrophysics Research Institute |
| Publisher: | American Astronomical Society and IOP Publishing |
| Related URLs: | |
| Date Deposited: | 05 Aug 2016 09:16 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Sep 2021 12:37 |
| URI: | https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/4003 |
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