Optical re-brightening of Swift J1753.5-0127

ATel #16559; Payaswini Saikia, David M. Russell, Kevin Alabarta, D. M. Bramich, Sandeep Rout (NYU Abu Dhabi), M. Cristina Baglio (INAF-OAB), Jeroen Homan (Eureka Scientific), T. D. Russell (INAF/IASF Palermo) and Fraser Lewis (Faulkes Telescope Project & Astrophysics Research Institute, LJMU)
on 30 Mar 2024; 07:03 UT
Credential Certification: Payaswini Saikia (ps164@nyu.edu)

Tweet

The black hole low-mass X-ray binary Swift J1753.5-0127 recently completed an outburst that started on September 28, 2023 (MJD 60215.10, ATel #16262) and ended around ~150-160 days later, on approximately March 08, 2024 (MJD 60377.79, ATel #16527). That outburst was monitored at various wavelengths including optical with the Las Cumbres Observatory network (LCO, ATel #16262, ATel #16318, ATel #16447, ATel #16527) and the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT, ATel #16427), in X-rays with Chandra/ACIS-S (ATel #16272), Swift/XRT (ATel #16272, ATel #16447) and NICER (ATel #16318), and at radio wavelengths with MeerKAT (ATel #16281).

Long-term LCO monitoring has revealed quiescent optical magnitudes of i' = 21.37+/-0.28. As such the source was reported to have returned to quiescent levels with optical magnitudes r' = 21.57+/-0.18 and i' =20.96+/-0.20 on March 08 (MJD 60377.79, ATel #16527).

Recent optical monitoring shows that the source is re-brightening once again, possibly starting a mini-outburst or a new outburst. We note that the rise of the re-brightening is much slower than the rise observed during the start of the outburst in September 2023. The source came out of quiescence with i'-band magnitudes 20.96+/-0.20 (MJD 60377.8), 20.69+/-0.08 (MJD 60387.6), 18.59+/-0.02 (MJD 60392.3) and 18.18+/-0.02 (MJD 60394.3). We also observe the brightening in the V-band with magnitudes changing from 19.01+/-0.03 (MJD 60392.3) to 18.50+/- 0.03 (MJD 60394.3). The latest optical magnitudes are recorded as i' = 17.89 +/- 0.02 and V = 18.28 +/- 0.02 on March 27 (MJD 60396.4).

Multi-wavelength observations of Swift J1753.5-0127 of this re-brightening are strongly encouraged.

We will continue to observe the system with LCO as part of an ongoing monitoring program of ~50 low-mass X-ray binaries (Lewis et al. 2008). LCO images are processed and reduced, and magnitudes are extracted and calibrated using a real-time data analysis pipeline, the "X-ray Binary New Early Warning System" (XB-NEWS; see Russell et al. 2019, Goodwin et al. 2020 and ATel #13451 for details).

This material is based upon work supported by Tamkeen under the NYU Abu Dhabi Research Institute grant CASS (Center for Astrophysics and Space Science).

Optical light-curve