Optical Observations of XTE J1118 + 480 during the 2000 Outburst

Abstract

Abstract We report on photometric and spectroscopic observations of a possible halo black-hole X-ray nova, XTE J1118$ +$480 ($ =$ KV UMa) during outburst. Our photometric monitoring during the main outburst revealed that the optical maximum as well as the onset of the outburst precede those in the X-ray region. This indicates that the event was an “outside-in” type outburst and that its optical flux was dominated by viscous heating, itself, and not the effect of X-ray irradiation. Based on these results, we suggest an outburst scenario analogous to superoutbursts in SU UMa-type dwarf novae. This scenario predicts a superhump phenomenon, which we indeed detected throughout the outburst. We determined its period to be $ 0.170529\pm 0.000006 \,\mathrm{d}$, which is slightly longer than the orbital periods suggested from spectroscopic observations. We have furthermore revealed the first evidence of a continuous period decreasing in X-ray novae. The most prominent feature in our optical spectrum is a double-peak He II 4686Å emission line having an asymmetric profile with an outstanding blue side peak. Using a Doppler mapping method, we found that the He II emission originates from the accretion disk, which particularly concentrates on the hot spot. The time that the blue peak becomes strongest corresponds to a superhump peak. This implies that we see an elongated side of an eccentric disk at that time and, hence, it may cause an asymmetric emission profile. Substituting the observed fractional superhump excess for a theoretically expected relation between it and the mass ratio, we estimate that the black-hole mass is larger than $9.5 \,{{{M}_{\odot}}}$. XTE J1118$ +$480 thus has a large mass of a compact object compared with the typical black-hole X-ray novae.