Updated Orbital Ephemeris and Detection of Superhump Modulation in X-ray Band for the Ultra-Compact Low Mass X-ray Binary 4U 1820-30

Abstract

The 4U 1820-30 is a ultra-compact low mass X-ray binary (LMXB) near the center of the globular cluster NGC 6624. Its negative orbital period derivative, observed from the phase evolution of its sinusoidal-like orbital variation, contradicts the positive value obtained from the theoretical prediction. In this paper, we present the analysis of the 4U 1820-30 orbital modulation from light curves obtained from the {\it Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER)} observations from 2017 to mid 2022. Combined with historical records, the orbital derivative is measured from the orbital phase evolution between 1976 and 2002 is $\dot P /P =(-5.21 \pm 0.13) \times 10^{-8}$ yr$^{-1}$. No significant second order orbital period derivative is detected with a 2$\sigma$ upper limit of $|\ddot P|<5.48 \times 10^{-22}$ s s$^{-2}$. We discuss the possible intrinsic orbital period derivative of 4U 1820-30 and suggest that this binary system may have a significant mass outflow similar to some other LMXBs. In addition, a periodic modulation with a period of $691.6 \pm 0.7$ s, which is consistent with the superhump period discovered in the far ultraviolet band of the {\it Hubble Space Telescope}, was also detected in in the X-ray light curves collected by {\it NICER}. We conclude that such modulation is probably caused by a period of $0.8 \pm 0.1$ day apsidal precession of accretion disk similar to the SU UMa type dwarf novae and some LMXBs. However we cannot exclude the possibility that it is induced by a hierarchical third star orbiting around the binary system.