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Precision ephemerides for gravitational - wave searches. I. Sco X-1
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Galloway, Duncan K., Premachandra, Sammanani, Steeghs, D., Marsh, Tom, Casares, Jorge and Cornelisse, Rémon (2013) Precision ephemerides for gravitational - wave searches. I. Sco X-1. The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 781 (Number 1). Article number 14. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/781/1/14 ISSN 0004-637X.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/781/1/14
Abstract
Rapidly rotating neutron stars are the only candidates for persistent high-frequency gravitational wave emission, for which a targeted search can be performed based on the spin period measured from electromagnetic (e.g., radio and X-ray) observations. The principal factor determining the sensitivity of such searches is the measurement precision of the physical parameters of the system. Neutron stars in X-ray binaries present additional computational demands for searches due to the uncertainty in the binary parameters. We present the results of a pilot study with the goal of improving the measurement precision of binary orbital parameters for candidate gravitational wave sources. We observed the optical counterpart of Sco X-1 in 2011 June with the William Herschel Telescope and also made use of Very Large Telescope observations in 2011 to provide an additional epoch of radial-velocity measurements to earlier measurements in 1999. From a circular orbit fit to the combined data set, we obtained an improvement of a factor of 2 in the orbital period precision and a factor of 2.5 in the epoch of inferior conjunction T 0. While the new orbital period is consistent with the previous value of Gottlieb et al., the new T 0 (and the amplitude of variation of the Bowen line velocities) exhibited a significant shift, which we attribute to variations in the emission geometry with epoch. We propagate the uncertainties on these parameters through to the expected Advanced LIGO-Virgo detector network observation epochs and quantify the improvement obtained with additional optical observations.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Physics | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | The Astrophysical Journal | ||||
Publisher: | Institute of Physics Publishing, Inc. | ||||
ISSN: | 0004-637X | ||||
Official Date: | 2013 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Volume 781 | ||||
Number: | Number 1 | ||||
Page Range: | Article number 14 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1088/0004-637X/781/1/14 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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