Abstract
THE transient X-ray sources Ariel 1118–61 and Ariel 0535 + 26 have periods of 405 s (ref. 1) and 114 s (ref. 2) respectively. Rappaport and McClintock3 reported the discovery of a 283-s period in the X-ray binary 3U0900–40 (a ‘continuous’ source) which is known to have an orbital period Porb = 8.95 d. This raises the possibility that the periodic transients may be a particular stage of evolution of the more familiar class of X-ray binary of the 3U0900–40 variety. We propose that the transient phenomenon occurs during the ‘sleeping phase’4 of the binary system when the early type star is still essentially on the main sequence, significantly underfilling its Roche lobe.
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WICKRAMASINGHE, D., WHELAN, J. The periodic transient X-ray sources. Nature 258, 502–503 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/258502a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/258502a0
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