Optical Counterpart of the LMXB GX 13+1

Abstract

We have observed the IR counterpart of the Atoll type LMXB GX 13+1, (Naylor, Charles & Longmore 1991), from 1993 July 11…30, with the Dutch 90 cm telescope at ESO using a Gunn z (0.9–1.0 μm) filter. Over this period 110 usable images (integration time 12 m) were obtained. The data were reduced using the ESO-MIDAS/DAPHOT reduction package. A Lomb-Scargle period search was performed with the PERIOD package.Fig. 1 shows our Gunn z band image with stars labeled as in Naylor et al. (1991). They propose their star 101 as the IR counterpart. Fig. 2 shows the light curve we obtained for this star. The star is clearly variable on a time-scale of ~ 10 d. To estimate any period more accurately we have made a Lomb-Scargle statistics periodigram (see Fig. 3); maximum power is at 12.6 d. We estimate the error to be ~ 1 day.