Discovery of one neutron star candidate from radial velocity monitoring

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a potential neutron star binary system through radial velocity monitoring, using spectroscopic data, and constrains the unseen companion's mass, suggesting it is likely a neutron star.

Contribution

The study demonstrates the effectiveness of LAMOST spectroscopic survey in identifying X-ray quiescent compact objects, specifically a neutron star candidate in a binary system.

Findings

Radial velocity variation indicates an unseen compact object.

Optical light curves show ellipsoidal variability of the visible star.

Spectral analysis supports the presence of a neutron star rather than a white dwarf.

Abstract

We report the discovery of one possible neutron star binary ($P_{\rm orb} =$ 0.8666 day) by using the LAMOST low-resolution spectroscopic data. The visible companion is a late A-type dwarf ($T_{\rm eff} = 7900 \pm 200$ K; log$g$ $=$ 4.3$\pm$0.2; $M =$ 1.7$\pm$0.1 M$_{\odot}$; $R\ =\ 1.7\pm0.2$ R$_{\odot}$), at a distance of 1.11$\pm0.03$ kpc. No double-lined feature can be seen from the GTC/HORuS high-resolution spectra, thus the radial velocity variation indicates an invisible object hiding in the binary. The system's optical light curves show clear ellipsoidal variability, suggesting that the visible companion is tidal distorted. By fitting the multi-band light curves with the ELC and WD codes, we constrain the mass of the invisible star to be 1.1--1.3 M$_{\odot}$. Spectral disentangling shows no additional component with optical absorption spectra, supporting the system contains one compact object. No X-ray or UV emission are detected in the ROSAT archive observations. Therefore, we suspect the invisible object is more likely a neutron star rather than a white dwarf. Our finding suggests the ability of LAMOST spectroscopic survey to discover X-ray quiescent compact objects.