Does X Persei really have a massive companion?
Abstract
Based on analysis of X-ray and optical data, it is suggested that the secondary of X Per does not exceed about 2 solar masses. The hypothesis of a massive companion has been based on the assumptions that the period of the velocity variations is the period of the orbital motion of X Per about its companion and that the peak-to-peak amplitude of the velocity curve of the high Balmer lines represents the amplitude of the radial orbital velocity. The present analysis shows that even if the periodicity is orbital, the observed wavelength shifts in the Balmer lines probably do not represent the orbital velocities, which are proposed to have a much smaller amplitude corresponding to a low-mass secondary. Although the data examined are not sufficient to define a model for the system, it is proposed that X Per is probably orbited by a low-mass secondary system, either a single star or a binary system with a compact object orbiting a late-type nondegenerate star.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- December 1976
- Bibcode:
- 1976A&A....53..321M
- Keywords:
-
- B Stars;
- Companion Stars;
- Stellar Mass;
- Variable Stars;
- X Ray Sources;
- Balmer Series;
- Binary Stars;
- Late Stars;
- Orbital Velocity;
- Astrophysics