The black hole candidate XTE J1752-223 towards and in quiescence: optical and simultaneous X-ray - radio observations

TL;DR

This study combines optical, X-ray, and radio observations of the black hole transient XTE J1752-223 during and after outburst, revealing its faint quiescent state, short orbital period, and unusual X-ray-radio correlation behavior.

Contribution

It provides new constraints on the quiescent flux, orbital period, and jet activity of XTE J1752-223, and compares its X-ray-radio relation with other black hole transients.

Findings

Quiescent optical magnitude fainter than 24.4 in i'-band.

Outburst amplitude exceeds 8 magnitudes in i'-band.

XTE J1752-223 is an outlier in the X-ray-radio luminosity relation.

Abstract

We present optical, X-ray and radio observations of the black hole transient (BHT) XTE J1752-223 towards and in quiescence. Optical photometry shows that the quiescent magnitude of XTE J1752-223 is fainter than 24.4 magnitudes in the i'-band. A comparison with measurements of the source during its 2009-2010 outburst shows that the outburst amplitude is more than 8 magnitudes in the i'-band. Known X-ray properties of the source combined with the faintness of the quiescence optical counterpart and the large outburst optical amplitude point towards a short orbital period system (Porb<~6.8 h) with an M type (or later) mass donor, at a distance of 3.5<~d<~8 kpc. Simultaneous X-ray and radio data were collected with Chandra and the EVLA, allowing constraints to be placed on the quiescent X-ray and radio flux of XTE J1752-223. Furthermore, using data covering the final stage of the outburst decay, we investigated the low luminosity end of the X-ray - radio correlation for this source and compared it with other BHTs. We found that XTE J1752-223 adds to the number of outliers with respect to the `standard' X-ray - radio luminosity relation. Furthermore, XTE J1752-223 is the second source, after the BHT H1743-322, that shows a transition from the region of the outliers towards the `standard' correlation at low luminosity. Finally, we report on a faint, variable X-ray source we discovered with Chandra at an angular distance of ~2.9" to XTE J1752-223 and at a position angle consistent with that of the radio jets previously observed from the BHT. We discuss the possibility that we detected X-ray emission associated with a jet from XTE J1752-223.