A candidate to the long sought optical counterpart to the Rapid Burster in the bulge fossil fragment Liller 1

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Pallanca, Cristina, Ferraro, Francesco R., Lanzoni, Barbara, Cadelano, Mario, Heinke, Craig O., Berg, Maureen van den, Homan, Jeroen, Crociati, Chiara, Guillot, Sebastien
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Pallanca, Cristina
Ferraro, Francesco R.
Lanzoni, Barbara
Cadelano, Mario
Heinke, Craig O.
Berg, Maureen van den
Homan, Jeroen
Crociati, Chiara
Guillot, Sebastien
author_facet Pallanca, Cristina
Ferraro, Francesco R.
Lanzoni, Barbara
Cadelano, Mario
Heinke, Craig O.
Berg, Maureen van den
Homan, Jeroen
Crociati, Chiara
Guillot, Sebastien
contents We report on the possible identification of the optical counterpart of the Rapid Burster MXB 1730-335 in the stellar system Liller 1. The identification was performed by taking advantage of a set of images acquired with the Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys in the optical band, and with the Gemini South Telescope in the near-infrared. The analysis of these images revealed the presence of a star with a position possibly compatible with the X-ray and radio band coordinates of the Rapid Burster, and showing significant optical variability. According to its location in the color-magnitude diagram, the candidate companion appears to belong to the young (~ 1-2 Gyr old) super-solar metallicity ([M/H]= +0.3) sub-population recently discovered in Liller 1. We discuss the main characteristics of the candidate counterpart and the Rapid Burster binary system as derived from the available data, also highlighting the need for further coordinated observations to solidly confirm their association and better clarify their physical properties.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_10640
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A candidate to the long sought optical counterpart to the Rapid Burster in the bulge fossil fragment Liller 1
Pallanca, Cristina
Ferraro, Francesco R.
Lanzoni, Barbara
Cadelano, Mario
Heinke, Craig O.
Berg, Maureen van den
Homan, Jeroen
Crociati, Chiara
Guillot, Sebastien
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
We report on the possible identification of the optical counterpart of the Rapid Burster MXB 1730-335 in the stellar system Liller 1. The identification was performed by taking advantage of a set of images acquired with the Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys in the optical band, and with the Gemini South Telescope in the near-infrared. The analysis of these images revealed the presence of a star with a position possibly compatible with the X-ray and radio band coordinates of the Rapid Burster, and showing significant optical variability. According to its location in the color-magnitude diagram, the candidate companion appears to belong to the young (~ 1-2 Gyr old) super-solar metallicity ([M/H]= +0.3) sub-population recently discovered in Liller 1. We discuss the main characteristics of the candidate counterpart and the Rapid Burster binary system as derived from the available data, also highlighting the need for further coordinated observations to solidly confirm their association and better clarify their physical properties.
title A candidate to the long sought optical counterpart to the Rapid Burster in the bulge fossil fragment Liller 1
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.10640