CXOU J005245.0-722844: Discovery of a be star / white dwarf binary system in the SMC via a very fast, super-eddington X-ray outburst event

Abstract

Abstract CXOU J005245.0-722844 is an X-ray source in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) that has long been known as a Be/X-ray binary (BeXRB) star, containing an OBe main sequence star and a compact object. In this paper, we report on a new very fast X-ray outburst from CXOU J005245.0-722844. X-ray observations taken by Swift constrain the duration of the outburst to less than 16 days and find that the source reached super-Eddington X-ray luminosities during the initial phases of the eruption. The XRT spectrum of CXOU J005245.0-722844 during this outburst reveals a super-soft X-ray source, best fit by an absorbed thermal blackbody model. Optical and Ultraviolet follow-up observations from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE), Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), and Swift identify a brief ∼0.5 magnitude optical burst coincident with the X-ray outburst that lasted for less than 7 days. Optical photometry additionally identifies the orbital period of the system to be 17.55 days and identifies a shortening of the period to 17.14 days in the years leading up to the outburst. Optical spectroscopy from the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) confirms that the optical companion is an early-type OBe star. We conclude from our observations that the compact object in this system is a white dwarf (WD), making this the seventh candidate Be/WD X-ray binary. The X-ray outburst is found to be the result of a very-fast, ultra-luminous nova similar to the outburst of MAXI J0158-744.