NIR Imaging of the Transitional Pulsar Binary J1023+0038
ATel #6103; Z. Wang, A. Tziamtzis (SHAO), D. L. Kaplan, R. Kotulla, M. Orio (UW-Milwaukee and UW Madison), A. K.H. Kong, P. H.T. Tam (Tsing Hua, Taiwan), X. Wang (SHAO)
on 29 Apr 2014; 09:05 UT
Credential Certification: Z. Wang (wangzx@shao.ac.cn)
Subjects: Infra-Red, Binary, Pulsar
Referred to by ATel #: 6162
We observed the transitional pulsar binary J1023+0038 on 2014 April 13, using the WHIRC camera on the 3.5-m WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak in Arizona, USA. The on-source times were 2.1 and 3.3 min in J and Ks band, respectively. The binary was detected and the obtained magnitudes are
J=15.15+/-0.05 and Ks=14.73+/-0.11, with the uncertainties dominated by that of one in-field 2MASS star used for flux calibration. Comparing the magnitudes with the 2MASS measurements on 2000 Feb. 6 and that from du Pont/RetroCam on 2012 May 10 (Wang et al. 2013, ApJ, 764, 144), the source was approximately 1.1 magnitude brighter at the NIR bands. In addition, the flux measurements well match the disk+G5V model spectrum shown in Wang et al. (2013). The comparisons show that the source is still in the accreting state starting since 2013 late June (Stappers et al., ATel 5513; Patruno et al. 2014, ApJL, 781, L3; Takata et al. 2014, ApJ, 785, 131), which is also indicated by X-ray and Gamma-ray monitoring by Swift/XRT and Fermi/LAT, respectively, and suggest that the current disk in the binary is similar to that appearing during 2000-2001 (Wang et al. 2009, ApJ, 703, 2017).
