Monitoring the spin up in RX J0806+15

Abstract

RX J0806+15 shows a prominent intensity variation on a period of 321.5 sec. This has widely been interpreted as the binary orbital period, although this remains controversial. We have been monitoring the precise period of RX J0806+15 for a number of years. By measuring the rate of change we can help distinguish between competing physical models. New observations obtained between Nov 2003 and Feb 2004 show that the period decrease already reported by Hakala et al (2003) and Strohmayer (2003) is continuing. We discuss how reliably we can determine the period of RX J0806+15 using our technique and evaluate the current models which have been proposed to account for the observational properties of this source.