Paper detail

On the outburst amplitude of the soft X-ray transients

We find a strong correlation between the optical outburst amplitude Delta V and orbital period P_{orb} for the soft X-ray transient sources with orbital periods less than 1 day. By fitting the observed values for 8 X-ray transients we determine an empirical relation that can be used to predict the orbital period of an X-ray transient given only its outburst amplitude: ΔV= 14.36 - 7.63\log P_{orb}(h). For periods less than 12 hrs we determine a relation for the absolute magnitude of the accretion disc during outburst, which then allows us to estimate the distances to the sources.