Observing Orbital Decay in the Ultracompact Hot Subdwarf Binary System ZTFJ213056.71+442046.5

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Teckenburg, Paul, Kupfer, Thomas, Brown, Alex J., Roth, Martin M., Daya, Fatma Ben, Knoche, Jörg, Vješnica, Stella, Roje, Paško, Kretlow, Mike, Cikota, Stefan
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866914573317046272
author Teckenburg, Paul
Kupfer, Thomas
Brown, Alex J.
Roth, Martin M.
Daya, Fatma Ben
Knoche, Jörg
Vješnica, Stella
Roje, Paško
Kretlow, Mike
Cikota, Stefan
author_facet Teckenburg, Paul
Kupfer, Thomas
Brown, Alex J.
Roth, Martin M.
Daya, Fatma Ben
Knoche, Jörg
Vješnica, Stella
Roje, Paško
Kretlow, Mike
Cikota, Stefan
contents Ultracompact Galactic binary systems (UCBs) emit low-frequency gravitational waves (GWs). The emission of GWs is causing these systems to lose angular momentum, which is detectable by observing an orbital period decay. ZTFJ213056.71+442046.5 (ZTFJ2130) is an UCB with a period of 39.3401(1) minutes consisting of a Roche lobe-filling hot subdwarf and a white dwarf companion. We attempt to measure the orbital decay rate $\dot{P}$ caused by GW emission of ZTFJ2130 and predict the expected GW signal for LISA. High-speed photometry was conducted using the FLI Kepler KL4040FI CMOS camera, mounted to the 1.2-meter Oskar Lühning telescope at the Hamburg Observatory as well as the Hamamatsu ORCA-Quest 2 qCMOS camera at the 1.23-meter telescope at CAHA in Spain. ZTFJ2130 was observed on six nights between August 2024 and September 2025. The obtained lightcurves combined with previous high-cadence observations were used to conduct an O-C timing analysis. Additionally, we employed the LISA data analysis tool ldasoft to model the expected GW data. We measure a period change of $(-1.97\pm0.05)\times10^{-12}\,\mathrm{ss^{-1}}$. Assuming only GW emission, this result was used to calculate a chirp mass of $(0.408\pm0.006)\,\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$. From ldasoft we predict that LISA will be able to measure the chirp mass with an uncertainty of 5%. We measure $\dot{P}$ with an uncertainty of only 2% and show that modern (q)CMOS detectors are well suited to provide precise timing measurements, enabling the measurement of the orbital decay of UCBs with high precision with modest size telescopes. The derived orbital decay is fully consistent with predictions from spectral and lightcurve modeling. We show that future observations with LISA can potentially provide a deviation from only gravitational wave effects, e.g. due to accretion, if the effect is sufficiently large.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_25653
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Observing Orbital Decay in the Ultracompact Hot Subdwarf Binary System ZTFJ213056.71+442046.5
Teckenburg, Paul
Kupfer, Thomas
Brown, Alex J.
Roth, Martin M.
Daya, Fatma Ben
Knoche, Jörg
Vješnica, Stella
Roje, Paško
Kretlow, Mike
Cikota, Stefan
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Ultracompact Galactic binary systems (UCBs) emit low-frequency gravitational waves (GWs). The emission of GWs is causing these systems to lose angular momentum, which is detectable by observing an orbital period decay. ZTFJ213056.71+442046.5 (ZTFJ2130) is an UCB with a period of 39.3401(1) minutes consisting of a Roche lobe-filling hot subdwarf and a white dwarf companion. We attempt to measure the orbital decay rate $\dot{P}$ caused by GW emission of ZTFJ2130 and predict the expected GW signal for LISA. High-speed photometry was conducted using the FLI Kepler KL4040FI CMOS camera, mounted to the 1.2-meter Oskar Lühning telescope at the Hamburg Observatory as well as the Hamamatsu ORCA-Quest 2 qCMOS camera at the 1.23-meter telescope at CAHA in Spain. ZTFJ2130 was observed on six nights between August 2024 and September 2025. The obtained lightcurves combined with previous high-cadence observations were used to conduct an O-C timing analysis. Additionally, we employed the LISA data analysis tool ldasoft to model the expected GW data. We measure a period change of $(-1.97\pm0.05)\times10^{-12}\,\mathrm{ss^{-1}}$. Assuming only GW emission, this result was used to calculate a chirp mass of $(0.408\pm0.006)\,\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$. From ldasoft we predict that LISA will be able to measure the chirp mass with an uncertainty of 5%. We measure $\dot{P}$ with an uncertainty of only 2% and show that modern (q)CMOS detectors are well suited to provide precise timing measurements, enabling the measurement of the orbital decay of UCBs with high precision with modest size telescopes. The derived orbital decay is fully consistent with predictions from spectral and lightcurve modeling. We show that future observations with LISA can potentially provide a deviation from only gravitational wave effects, e.g. due to accretion, if the effect is sufficiently large.
title Observing Orbital Decay in the Ultracompact Hot Subdwarf Binary System ZTFJ213056.71+442046.5
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.25653