Eccentricity of HLX-1

TL;DR

This paper investigates the eccentricity of the accretion disk in HLX-1, suggesting a highly eccentric orbit with implications for the nature of the donor star and its evolution.

Contribution

It introduces a method to estimate the outer disk radius from outburst decay and infers a highly eccentric orbit for HLX-1, linking it to similar systems in the Galactic center.

Findings

Outer disk radius estimated as 10^{12}-10^{13} cm

Orbit eccentricity e >~ 0.95

Donor star not at risk of tidal disruption

Abstract

I compare the outer radius of the accretion disc in the intermediate-mass black hole candidate HLX-1 as estimated from the UV/optical continuum, with the values estimated from its outburst decline timescales. I fit the Swift 2010 outburst decline lightcurve with an exponential decay, a knee and a linear decay. I find that the disk has an outer radius 10^{12} cm <~ R_{out} <~ 10^{13} cm, only an order of magnitude larger than typical accretion discs in the high/soft state of Galactic black holes. By contrast, the semimajor axis is ~ a few times 10^{14} cm. This discrepancy can be explained with a highly eccentric orbit. I estimate the tidal truncation radius and circularization radius around the black hole at periastron, and impose that they are similar to or smaller than the outer disk radius. I obtain that e >~ 0.95, that the radius of the donor star is <~ a few solar radii, and that the donor star is not at risk of tidal disruption. If the companion star fills its Roche lobe and impulsively transfers mass only around periastron, secular evolution of the orbit is expected to increase eccentricity and semimajor axis even further. I speculate that such extremely eccentric systems may have the same origin as the S stars in the Galactic centre.