Echo-Mapping of Swift J1753.5-0127

TL;DR

This study presents coordinated X-ray-optical timing observations of Swift J1753.5-0127 during its 2005 outburst, revealing correlated variability consistent with thermal reprocessing and suggesting a short orbital period, with complex cross-correlation features indicating possible synchrotron emission.

Contribution

First detailed multi-epoch timing analysis of Swift J1753.5-0127 linking optical and X-ray variability with implications for accretion processes.

Findings

Correlation consistent with thermal reprocessing in accretion disk

Short lag suggests a short orbital period

Unusual cross-correlation structure indicating possible synchrotron emission

Abstract

We present two epochs of coordinated X-ray-optical timing observations of the black hole candidate Swift J1753.5-0127 during its 2005 outburst. The first epoch in July occurred at outburst peak. Two consecutive nights of observations using the McDonald Observatory Argos camera with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer show a consistent correlation with an immediate response and an extended tail lasting ~5s. The properties of the variability and the correlation are consistent with thermal reprocessing in an accretion disk. The shortness of the lag suggests a short orbital period consistent with that recently claimed. The second epoch in August used the VLT FORS2 HIT mode again in conjunction with RXTE. Again a repeatable correlation is seen between two independent subsets of the data. In this case, though, the cross-correlation function has an unusual structure comprising a dip followed by a double-peak. We suggest that this may be equivalent to the dip plus single peak structure seen by Kanbach et al. (2001) in XTE J1118+480 and attributed there to synchrotron emission; a similar structure was seen during later activity of Swift J1753.5-0127 by Durant et al. (2008).