A 2.15 hr ORBITAL PERIOD FOR THE LOW-MASS X-RAY BINARY XB 1832-330 IN THE GLOBULAR CLUSTER NGC 6652

We present a candidate orbital period for the low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) XB 1832-330 in the globular cluster NGC 6652 using a 6.5 hr Gemini South observation of the optical counterpart of the system. Light curves in g' and r' for two LMXBs in the cluster, sources A and B in previous literature, were extracted and analyzed for periodicity using the ISIS image subtraction package. A clear sinusoidal modulation is evident in both of A's curves, of amplitude ∼0.11 mag in g' and ∼0.065 mag in r', while B's curves exhibit rapid flickering, of amplitude ∼1 mag in g' and ∼0.5 mag in r'. A Lomb-Scargle test revealed a 2.15 hr periodic variation in the magnitude of A with a false alarm probability less than 10–11, and no significant periodicity in the light curve for B. Though it is possible that saturated stars in the vicinity of our sources partially contaminated our signal, the identification of A's binary period is nonetheless robust.