Periodic X-ray Modulation and its relation with orbital elements in Compact Binaries

Abstract

Stellar companion of a black hole orbiting in an eccentric orbit will experience modulating tidal force with a periodicity same as that of the orbital period. This, in turn, would modulate accretion rates, and the seed photon flux which are inverse Comptonized to produce harder X-rays. By analyzing complete all sky monitor (ASM) data (1.5-12 keV) of RXTE and all sky survey data (15-50 keV) of Swift/BAT we discover this periodicity in several objects. We also estimate eccentricities from the RMS power of the peak around quasi-orbital periods (QOP). Our method provides an independent way to obtain time periods and eccentricities of such compact binaries.