Detection of an Extremely Luminous Radio Counterpart to the Be/X-ray Binary A0538–66

Abstract We present the discovery of radio emission from the Be/X-ray binary A0538–66 with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), and results from a subsequent weekly monitoring campaign with the MeerKAT radio telescope. A0538–66, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, hosts a neutron star with a short spin period (P ≈ 69 ms) in a highly eccentric ≈16.6-day orbit. Its rare episodes of super-Eddington accretion, rapid optical and X-ray flares, and other peculiar properties make it an interesting system among high-mass X-ray binaries. Our MeerKAT data reveal that it is also one of the most radio-luminous neutron star X-ray binaries observed to date, reaching ≈3 × 1022 erg s−1Hz−1, with radio emission that appears to be orbitally modulated. We consider several possible mechanisms for the radio emission, and place A0538–66 in context by comparing it to similar systems.

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Publication Details

Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Published
2026-02-03
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag224
Primary Topic
Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
Type
article
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article

Detection of an Extremely Luminous Radio Counterpart to the Be/X-ray Binary A0538–66

Francesco Carotenuto, S. Motta, Lorenzo Salvia e Andrea Ducci, T. Murphy et al.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
article

Detection of an Extremely Luminous Radio Counterpart to the Be/X-ray Binary A0538–66

Francesco Carotenuto, S. Motta, Lorenzo Salvia e Andrea Ducci, T. Murphy, F. J. Cowie, A.K. Hughes, Dougal Dobie, Justine Crook-Mansour, Jakob van den Eijnden, Itumeleng Monageng, Alex Andersson, Andries Mathiba, Hao Qiu, Rob Fender, David L Kaplan, Phil Charles
article en

Abstract

Abstract We present the discovery of radio emission from the Be/X-ray binary A0538–66 with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), and results from a subsequent weekly monitoring campaign with the MeerKAT radio telescope. A0538–66, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, hosts a neutron star with a short spin period (P ≈ 69 ms) in a highly eccentric ≈16.6-day orbit. Its rare episodes of super-Eddington accretion, rapid optical and X-ray flares, and other peculiar properties make it an interesting system among high-mass X-ray binaries. Our MeerKAT data reveal that it is also one of the most radio-luminous neutron star X-ray binaries observed to date, reaching ≈3 × 1022 erg s−1Hz−1, with radio emission that appears to be orbitally modulated. We consider several possible mechanisms for the radio emission, and place A0538–66 in context by comparing it to similar systems.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
The University of Sydney (AU), United States Department of State (US), University of Cape Town (ZA), University of the Free State (ZA), Astronomical Observatory of Rome (IT), Brera Astronomical Observatory (IT), University of Oxford (GB), Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica di Milano (IT), SKA Observatory (GB), South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (ZA), Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital (NL), ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (AU), Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Astronomical Observatory (RS), University of Southampton (GB), University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (US), University of Tübingen (DE)
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Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
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