A model for SS433: precessing jets in an ultra-close binary system.
Abstract
The peculiar spectral features of SS 433 have been attributed to gas jets with velocity ∼c/4, precessing with a ∼160-day period. We propose a mechanism involving a spinning black hole (mass ≳ 5 Msun) accreting from a degenerate dwarf (mass ≲ 0.4 Msun). If the hole's spin axis is oblique with respect to the orbital angular momentum, each vector precesses owing to the Lense-Thirring effect. The jets, being always aligned with the hole's spin axis, sweep out a cone on the sky. The lifetime of the system against gravitational radiation is ∼ 104 yr. The mass loss from the dwarf is highly "super-critical" most of this matter escapes as a wind, and gives rise to the rest-system spectral features.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- October 1979
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/189.1.19P
- Bibcode:
- 1979MNRAS.189P..19M
- Keywords:
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- Close Binaries:Emission-Line Objects;
- Close Binaries:Peculiar Objects;
- SS433