A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

V Sge: supersoft source or exotic hot binary? - I. An X-Shooter campaign in the high state




AuthorsHakala, Pasi; Charles, Phil; Rodríguez-Gil, Pablo

Publisher Oxford University Press

Publication year2025

Journal:Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Volume543

Issue3

First page 2058

Last page2077

ISSN0035-8711

eISSN1365-2966

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1284

Web address https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1284

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/505230464


Abstract

V Sge is a peculiar, highly luminouslong-period (12.34 h) binary star that can display a supersoft X-ray emitting component when in the faint phase of its V ≈ 10 − 13 mag variability range. Apparently undergoing Eddington-limited accretion from its more massive secondary, it is in a very rare, short-lived evolutionary phase towards the double degenerate channel. Its complex and highly variable optical emission features, from Balmer and He II to high-ionization lines, including strong fluorescence features, have been challenging to interpret, especially given the absence of any absorption lines associated with photospheric features from either stellar component. With the detailed properties of V Sge, especially the donor, still controversial, we undertook a VLT/X-Shooter campaign over 4 months in 2023, obtaining high Signal-to-noise ratio, high resolution spectra that revealed multiple componentsin both high- and low-ionization lines. This allows usto track V Sge’s principal emitting regions via Doppler tomography, obtaining new insights into high accretion-rate dynamics. In particular, we identify a stationary, double-peaked emission core which we interpret as a circumbinary ring, analogous to SS 433. This enables us to derive limits on the system masses. Furthermore, we find very broad emission-line wings whose mean velocity can vary over hundreds of kilometres per second on time-scales of decades, yet ‘flip’ between states in <1 week. We show that the supersoft X-ray source interpretation is able to account for these and other observational attributes significantly better than the hot binary model, concluding that V Sge could be one of the brightest known Galactic supersoft sources.


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Funding information in the publication
PAC acknowledges the Leverhulme Trust for an Emeritus Fellowship, and UKRI for their ESO support. PR-G acknowledges support by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN/AEI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under grant PID2021–124879NB–I00.


Last updated on 2025-07-11 at 12:13