Abstract
ONE of the striking features of a number of the transient X-ray sources is the ‘precursor peak’, an intensity maximum which precedes the rise to primary maximum and is separated from it by a dip. It is characteristic of A0620–00 (refs 1, 2), A1524–62 (ref. 3), A1118–61 (refs 4, 5), and A0535+26 (refs 6–9). The time scale across the precursor and subsequent dip is ∼ 4–20 d, though for A0620–00 the dip itself spans a time of only ∼ 10 h. Apart from flares, which have a much shorter time scale, there are similar secondary peaks observed during decay for some of the sources—A1524–62 and A0535 + 26, for instance. Any model of these transients must account for such features along with the concurrent softening of the X-ray spectrum in some cases, the temporal asymmetry of the light curve and, for sources A1118–61 (ref. 5) and A0535 + 26 (ref. 6), periodicities of 6.755±0.010 min and 104.14±0.16 s, respectively. It is possible to explain qualitatively the precursor and related phenomena on the basis of accretion-disk behaviour with a rising accretion rate M, followed by its gradual subsidence and the emptying of the disk. In this paper I present three schemes.
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STOEGER, W., J., S. Accretion-disk scenarios of the precursor peak in X-ray transients. Nature 261, 211–213 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/261211a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/261211a0
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