IGR J16547-1916/1RXS J165443.5-191620 -- a New Intermediate Polar from the INTEGRAL Galactic Survey

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery and confirmation of a new intermediate polar, an accreting white dwarf binary, identified through multi-wavelength observations and variability analysis, expanding the catalog of such systems.

Contribution

The study provides the first optical identification and detailed characterization of IGR J16547-1916 as a new intermediate polar, including its period and mass estimate.

Findings

Identified IGR J16547-1916 as an intermediate polar.

Detected optical pulsations with a period of ~550 seconds.

Estimated the white dwarf mass to be approximately 0.85 solar masses.

Abstract

We present the results of our optical identification of the X-ray source IGR J16547-1916 detected by the INTEGRAL observatory during a deep all-sky survey. Analysis of the spectroscopic data from the SWIFT and INTEGRAL observatories in the X-ray energy band and from the BTA (Special Astrophysical Observatory) telescope in the optical band has shown that the source is most likely an intermediate polar -- an accreting white dwarf with the mass of M~0.85 M_Sun in a low-mass binary system. Subsequent studies of the object's rapid variability with the RTT-150 telescope have confirmed this conclusion by revealing periodic pulsations of its optical emission with a period of ~550 s.