The Swift-BAT hard X-ray sky monitoring unveils the orbital period of the HMXB IGR J16493−4348

• Published in: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Letters Vol. 406; no. 1; pp. L16 - L19
• Main Authors: Cusumano, G., La Parola, V., Romano, P., Segreto, A., Vercellone, S., Chincarini, G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 21.07.2010
• Subjects: X-rays: binaries; X-rays: individual: IGR J16493−4348
• ISSN: 1745-3925; 1745-3933
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-3933.2010.00872.x

ABSTRACT IGR J16493−4348 is a supergiant high‐mass X‐ray binary discovered by INTEGRAL in 2004. The source is detected at a significance level of ∼21 standard deviations in the Swift Burst Alert Telescope survey data collected during the first 54 months of the Swift mission. The timing analysis reveals an orbital period of ∼6.78 d and the presence of a full eclipse of the compact object. The dynamical range (variability up to a factor of ∼20) observed during the BAT monitoring suggests that IGR J16493−4348 is a wind‐fed system. The derived semimajor axis of the binary system is ∼55  R⊙ with an orbit eccentricity lower than 0.15.