Peculiarities in the orbital and precessional variability of SS433 from INTEGRAL observations

TL;DR

This study analyzes multiyear INTEGRAL observations of SS433, revealing complex orbital and precessional X-ray variability that supports the presence of a hot corona and a black hole in the system.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed modeling of SS433's orbital and precessional X-ray light curves across multiple energy bands, confirming the black hole nature and constraining the mass ratio.

Findings

Detection of a peculiar orbital light curve shape at 18-60 keV.

Identification of two bumps in the 40-60 keV orbital light curve due to nutation.

Confirmation of a hot extended corona and a black hole in SS433.

Abstract

Based on multiyear INTEGRAL observations of SS433, a composite IBIS/ISGRI 18-60 keV orbital light curve is constructed around zero precessional phase $\psi_{pr}= 0$. It shows a peculiar shape characterized by a significant excess near the orbital phase $\phi_{orb}= 0.25$, which is not seen in the softer 2-10 keV energy band. Such a shape is likely to be due to a complex asymmetric structure of the funnel in a supercritical accretion disk in SS433. The orbital light curve at 40-60 keV demonstrates two almost equal bumps at phases $\sim 0.25$ and $\sim 0.75$, most likely due to nutation effects of the accretion disk. The change of the off-eclipse 18-60 keV X-ray flux with the precessional phase shows a double-wave form with strong primary maximum at $\psi_{pr}= 0$ and weak but significant secondary maximum at $\psi_{pr}= 0.6$. A weak variability of the 18-60 keV flux in the middle of the orbital eclipse correlated with the disk precessional phase is also observed. The joint analysis of the broadband (18-60 keV) orbital and precessional light curves obtained by INTEGRAL confirms the presence of a hot extended corona in the central parts of the supercritical accretion disk and constrain the binary mass ratio in SS433 in the range $0.5\gtrsim q\gtrsim 0.3$, confirming the black hole nature of the compact object. Orbital and precessional light curves in the hardest X-ray band 40-60 keV, which is free from emission from thermal X-ray jets, are also best fitted by the same geometrical model with hot extended corona at $q\sim 0.3$, stressing the conclusions of the modeling of the broad-band X-ray orbital and precessional light curves.