Detection of a 23.6 min periodic modulation in the optical counterpart of 3XMMJ051034.6--670353

Abstract

We present high speed optical photometric observations made using the NTT and ULTRACAM of the optical counterpart of 3XMMJ051034.6--670353, which was recently identified as an X-ray source showing a modulation on a period of 23.6 min. Although the optical counterpart is faint (g=21.4), we find that the u'g'r' light curves show a periodic modulation on a period which is consistent with the X-ray period. We also obtained three low resolution spectra of 3XMMJ051034.6--670353 using the Gemini South Telescope and GMOS. There is no evidence for strong emission lines in the optical spectrum of 3XMMJ051034.6--670353. We compare and contrast the optical and X-ray observations of 3XMMJ051034.6--670353 with the ultra compact binaries HM Cnc and V407 Vul. We find we can identify a distribution of binary masses in which stable direct impact accretion can occur.