Here you

can see, the

frequency
seems to be starting out about here.
And
going out here it's
centred around oh, about 0.2071
cycles per second.
So our little
spike turns out to be a set of
frequencies between 0.2068
cycles per second, and
0.2074 cycles per
second.
It's not quite constant.
And if we follow the values of our new
clock, which
corresponds to a period, of 1 over f.
Now
these two are different periods right?
This is a two day period, and this is
going to correspond to something else
within the star.
We get for this, periods
of about 4.836
seconds to
4.822
seconds.
And let's see, this is the larger
frequency, so it corresponds
to the smaller period.
I think I might even have that right, but
you can check me on that.
It's changing its frequency.
And guess what?
It does so smoothly, varying back and
forth over,
what do you think the time period is?
Right, 2.09
days.
We have apparently uncovered a classic
case of an eclipsing binary star.
But
wait just a cotton picking minute.
If every 2.09
days we really see an eclipse that lasts
about 40,000 seconds,
can we predict anything from this
observation?
Sure.
If the x-ray emitting object is going
in and then coming out from behind another
star, as it
does so, maybe we should see a change in
the x-ray energy
spectrum, similar to the way the sun and
sky changes color
at sunrise and sunset, as the sunlight
passes through
more and more of the Earth's atmosphere.

So, the picture is this.

We have an object and we have our x-ray
source that goes
behind the object and then comes out of
eclipse.
And as it goes through the limb of our
companion
star, and as it comes out from the other
limb of the
companion star, it is possible that the
energy
that we see from the x-rays will change
its composition,
just as the sky changes to red during
sunrise and
some, and sunset.
And indeed, although the mechanisms
are very different for x-rays, the result
is that we do
see the source change as it goes into and
out of eclipse.
So we are beginning to put together
a satisfyingly coherent picture of our
system.
A source of cosmic x-rays
which somehow, has an internal clock of
about 4.8 seconds
is orbiting another object every 2.09
days.
But what are these objects, and what is
the 4.8 second periodicity due to?
Well, let's roll up our sleeves and get
back to work.
Let's examine what we already have and
where it can get us.
First, it appears that the
regularity of our range of different
periods is due to the Doppler
shift of the x-ray emitting star
travelling around its companion.
Since delta f over f equals v over c, our
change in frequency over the frequency
is equal to the speed divided by the
velocity
of light, and our range in frequencies
is 0.2074 To 0.2068
Hertz.
We end up with, Delta
f over f, equals v over c,
equals 0.2074 minus
0.2068, this is the
change in frequency, divided
by 2, all over the regular
frequency, or the average
frequency, 0.2071.
See if you can understand, why there's a
factor of
two in there.
That means, that v
over c, is equal to and we probably

should put in approximately equal things,

just to show
that we're really not exactly 100%
accurate
here.
This is going to be equal to
0.0003 divided by
0.2071.
And
that equals approximately
0.00145.
So when we solve for v, v turns out
to be around 430 Kilometers
per second, if we have a circular
orbit.
And in fact, these objects really are
mostly in circular orbits because of other
factors
of their orbital circumstances.
But now, we can find the
size of the orbit.
Since the circumference of the orbit
must be equal to 2 pi r, okay, the
object goes around at a radius r
from the companion, it goes once around
and
if the speed is constant at 430 kilometers
per second, that distance is nothing more
than the
velocity times the amount of time it takes
to go once
around, namely 2.09 days.
So now we can figure out what
r is.
R is going to be equal to the
velocity times the orbital period divided
by 2
pi, and our velocity is 430
kilometres per second times the time,
which is 2.09 days times
86,400 seconds in a day divided by
about 6.
And that's going to be in kilometers.
And if you do the math, you find that this
radius is equal to
about 1.2 times 10 to the 7 kilometers.
This is about one quarter the size of
Mercury's orbit around the Sun.
So, these two objects are really close
together.
Now we can do something really neat.
Since, the x-ray source is eclipsed for
about 40,000 seconds
every orbit, we can estimate crudely the
size of the other object.
Just take for
its diameter that 40,000 seconds worth
of blackout, and multiply
by the speed that the neutron star is
going

as it goes around in its orbit.

So 40,000
seconds times 430 kilometers
per second is equal to
1.7 times 10 to
the 7 kilometers.
This would be a crude
estimate of the diameter of our companion
star.
It's approximating the arc
of a circle with a straight line.
So the companion star's radius
is about half that, or 8.5 times 10 to the
6
kilometers.
Thus, not only is the orbit small, the
x-ray source must be very close to the
surface of the other
star.
Here's the radius of the orbit and
the radius of the star, r star, is about
8.5 times 10
to the 6 kilometers.
So what we're doing is we're imagining
that we have a star and that
the object is just moving behind it but in
a straight line instead of a circle.
But it's actually not a really bad
approximation.
But what it means is the radius of the
star is over 10 times the size of
the sun.
Now, I do have to say we did make some
approximations here.
And we talked about one of those
approximations, okay.
What are some of the other assumptions
that we made?
And I will leave that to you to figure
out.
So if our theory about the nature of the
low state
in Cen X-3's light curve is correct, we
have a prediction.
It is that the
companion star should be quite large and
massive.
Can we test that theory?
Yes!
Remember when we talked about gravity?
We derived an equation relating the period
of an orbit to its size, or radius.
Better known as Kepler's Third Law, it
states that, the
square of the period of an object in an
orbit
is proportional to the cube of the radius
of that orbit or T squared equals
4 pi squared over GM times
the radius of the orbit cubed.

Well, now
we know what T is, it's 2.09 days.
We know what r is, it's 1.2 times 10 to
the 7 kilometers.
We can solve for M.
It turns out that our derivation of this
equation is a somewhat simplified version
of reality.
In actuality, when you do a more precise
derivation of this equation, the mass in
the denominator
here is really the sum of the two masses
in the system.
But, this is really not a big problem at
all.
If we solve for M, you get, and I urge you
to do this,
you get about 3 times 10 to the
34 grams.
About 15 solar masses.
This is an excellent problem with which
to practice unit conversion; do it on your
own.
This result is reassuring.
We see that the system is a massive one,
which is what we suspected on the basis
of the light
curve analysis.