has average high-latitude properties. These results are discussed in the context of previous multiwavelength observations of this unusual system.
author:
- |
    Guillaume Dubus, Rita S.J. Kim, Kristen Menou, Paula Szkody\
    and David V. Bowen
title: 'Optical Spectroscopy Of The X-Ray Transient XTE J1118+480 In Outburst'
---

Introduction
============

Soft X-ray Transients (SXTs) are compact binary systems in which a low-mass secondary (either a main-sequence star or a subgiant) transfers mass via Roche-lobe overflow onto a black hole (BH) or a neutron star (NS) primary (see reviews by Tanaka & Lewin 1995; van Paradijs & McClintock 1995; White, Nagase & Parmar 1995). SXTs have highly variable luminosities. They spend most of their lifetime in a low luminosity quiescent state, but occasionally undergo dramatic outbursts during which both their optical and X-ray emission increase by several orders of magnitude (see, e.g., Tanaka & Shibazaki 1996; Chen, Shrader & Livio 1997).

The X-ray emission during outburst of an SXT is typically dominated by relatively soft, thermal emission from the accretion disk surrounding the compact object, while the optical emission is usually interpreted as reprocessed X-rays from the disk and/or the companion star. The new source XTE J1118+480 belongs to the class of 