The orbital period of scorpius X-1
Abstract
The orbital period of Sco X-1 was first identified by Gottlieb et al. While this has been confirmed on multiple occasions, this work, based on nearly a century of photographic data, has remained the reference in defining the system ephemeris ever since. It was, however, called into question when Vanderlinde et al. claimed to find the one-year alias of the historical period in RXTE/All-Sky Monitor data and suggested that this was the true period rather than that of Gottlieb et al. We examine data from the All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) spanning 2001-2009. We confirm that the period of Gottlieb et al. is in fact the correct one, at least in the optical, with the one-year alias strongly rejected by these data. We also provide a modern time of minimum light based on the ASAS data. © 2012 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.