CHANDRA Observations of V407 Vul: Confirmation of the Spin-up
  V407 Vul is a candidate double-degenerate binary with a putative 1.756 mHz (9.5 min) orbital frequency. In a previous timing study using archival ROSAT and ASCA data we reported evidence for an increase of this frequency at a rate consistent with expectations for gravitational radiation from a detached ultracompact binary system. Here we report the results of new CHANDRA timing observations which confirm the previous indications of spin-up of the X-ray frequency, and provide much tighter constraints on the frequency derivative. We obtained with CHANDRA a total of 90 ksec of exposure in two epochs separated in time by 11.5 months. The total time span of the archival ROSAT, ASCA and new CHANDRA data is now 10.5 years. This more than doubles the interval spanned by the ROSAT and ASCA data alone, providing much greater sensitivity to a frequency derivative. With the addition of the CHANDRA data an increasing frequency is unavoidable, with a value df/dt = 7.0 x 10-18 Hz/s. Although a long-term spin-up trend is confirmed, there is excess variance in the phase timing residuals, perhaps indicative of shorter timescale torque fluctuations or phase instability associated with the source of the X-ray flux. Power spectral searches for periods longward of the 9.5 minute period do not find any significant modulations, however, the sensitivity of searches in this frequency range are somewhat compromised by the dithering of the Chandra attitude. The observed spin-up is of a magnitude consistent with that expected from gravitational radiation decay, however, the factor of 3 variations in flux combined with the timing noise could conceivably result from accretion-induced spin-up of a white dwarf. Continued monitoring to explore correlations of torque with X-ray flux could provide a further test of this hypothesis. 
Tod E. Strohmayer