Measurement of the orbital period of the X-ray burster GS 1826-238 based on observations of its optical brightness variations

Abstract

The variability of the optical and X-ray fluxes from the binary GS 1826-238 is investigated. An epoch-folding analysis of the optical data obtained with the RTT-150 telescope in 2003–2004 has revealed periodic brightness variations in the source with a period Porb = 2.24940 ± 0.00015 h with a high statistical significance. When estimating the detection significance of the periodic signal, we have specially taken into account the presence of a powerful aperiodic component (“red noise”) in the source’s brightness variability. The source’s power density spectra in the frequency range ∼10−5–0.01 Hz have been obtained. We have detected a statistically significant break in the power density spectrum of GS 1826-238 at a frequency νbr ≈ (8.48 ± 0.14) × 10−5 Hz in both optical and X-ray energy bands. We have estimated the orbital period of the binary GS 1826-238 using the correlation between the break frequency in the power density spectrum and the orbital period of binaries, Porb ∝ 1/νbr, found by Gilfanov and Arefiev (2005): Porb = 3.7 ± 0.8 h and Porb = 11.3 ± 5.9 h when using Sco X-1 and 1H 16267-273, respectively, as reference sources. It seems to us that the method for estimating the orbital periods of low-mass X-ray binaries using the correlation Porb ∝ 1/νbr may turn out to be very promising, especially for persistent low-luminosity X-ray binaries.