Owens Valley Radio Observatory monitoring of LS I +61°303 completes three cycles of the super-orbital modulation

¹ Technische Universität Wien, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, 1040 Vienna, Austria
e-mail: Frederic.Jaron@tuwien.ac.at
² Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
³ Institute of Astrophysics, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, 71110 Heraklion, Greece
⁴ Department of Physics, Univ. of Crete, 70013 Heraklion, Greece
⁵ Owens Valley Radio Observatory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA

Received: 4 September 2023
Accepted: 18 January 2024

Abstract

Context. The high-mass X-ray binary LS I +61°303 is composed of a Be-type star and a compact object in an eccentric orbit. The emission from this source is variable and periodic across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to very high-energy γ rays. The orbital period has been determined as P₁ ≈ 26.5 d, and the source also features a super-orbital period with a value of P_long ≈ 4.6 years. Long-term monitoring of the binary by the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) at 15 GHz has now completed 13.8 years, which corresponds to three full cycles of the super-orbital period. This is exactly one long-term cycle more than in the previous publication about OVRO observations of this source.

Aims. Our aim is to investigate the presence and the stability of periodic signals in the radio data and to test if they are in agreement with previous results. This will contribute to the understanding of the physical processes behind the non-thermal emission from this source.

Methods. We performed a timing analysis of the OVRO radio light curve and made use of the generalized Lomb-Scargle periodogram. We also combined the OVRO data with the full archive of previous radio observations and computed the discrete autocorrelation function.

Results. The most powerful features in the periodogram of the OVRO data are two peaks at P₁ = 26.49 ± 0.05 d and P₂ = 26.93 ± 0.05 d, which are well separated from each other and clearly stand out above the very low noise level. The previously detected long-term period is still present in these new radio data, and our measurement is P_long = 1698 ± 196 d. Dividing the OVRO data into three segments of equal length showed that the two periods, P₁ and P₂, are present in the periodogram of each of the consecutive long-term cycles. Our analysis of the full radio archive resulted in the detection of the same three periods, and the autocorrelation function showed a regular pattern, proving the continuity of the decades-spanning stability of the super-orbital modulation. In addition, we report a possible systematic modulation of the radio flux density with a timescale of approximately 40 years that has so far remained unnoticed.

Conclusions. The physical model of a relativistic jet whose mass loading is modulated with the orbital period P₁ and is precessing with the slightly larger period P₂, giving rise to a beating with period P_long, had previously been able to reproduce the radio and gigaelectron volt emission from this source. The ongoing presence and the stability of the periodic signals imply that this model is still the most plausible explanation for the physical processes at work in this source.