Chandra, XMM-Newton and HST observations of a transient in M31 with a possible asymmetric, precessing disk

TL;DR

This study reports on multi-wavelength observations of a transient in M31, suggesting a short-period black hole system with a precessing, asymmetric accretion disk causing unusual decay profiles.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed analysis of a transient in M31 with evidence for a precessing, asymmetric disk influencing its decay lightcurve, based on combined X-ray and optical data.

Findings

Detected a faint optical counterpart during outburst.

X-ray spectrum consistent with an absorbed power law.

Estimated orbital period less than 4 hours.

Abstract

The transient X-ray source CXOM31 004205.77+411330.43 exhibited several outbursts during our long-term monitoring campaign of ~monthly observations of the M31 center with Chandra. However, the decay profile appears to be unlike those observed from Galactic transients. We followed up the 2011 outburst with two ~B band HST/ACS observations, one in outburst and the other in quiescence, and used difference imaging to search for a counterpart; this would be dominated by re-processed X-ray emission from the disk. We found a counterpart with B = 28.21+/-0.16. An XMM-Newton observation from a previous outburst yielded a spectrum that is well described by an absorbed power law with absorption equivalent to ~2.6 E+21 H atom cm^(-2) and photon index ~1.8; the highest quality Chandra spectrum yielded only $\sim$130 counts, and best fits consistent with the XMM-Newton results. We calculated an absolute V magnitude of +1.9 during outburst for a typical disk spectrum. An empirical relation between the ratio of X-ray to optical flux and orbital period suggests a period < ~4 hr for a black hole accretor. Such a short period is expected to yield an asymmetric, precessing disk, and we propose that the observed decay lightcurve is due to modulation of the mass transfer rate due to the disk precession.