Formation of Ultracompact X-Ray Binaries in Dense Star Clusters

Ivanova, N., Rasio, F. A., Lombardi, Jr., J. C., Dooley, Katherine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1636-0233 and Proulx, Z. F. 2005. Formation of Ultracompact X-Ray Binaries in Dense Star Clusters. Astrophysical Journal 621 (2) , L109. 10.1086/429220

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Abstract

Bright, ultracompact X-ray binaries observed in dense star clusters, such as Galactic globular clusters, must have formed relatively recently, since their lifetimes as persistent bright sources are short (e.g., ~108 yr above 1036 ergs s-1 for a 1.4 M☉ neutron star accreting from a degenerate helium companion with an initial mass of ~0.2 M☉). Therefore, we can use the present conditions in a cluster core to study possible dynamical formation processes for these sources. Here we show that direct physical collisions between neutron stars and red giants can provide a sufficient formation rate to explain the observed numbers of bright sources. These collisions produce tight, eccentric neutron star-white dwarf binaries that decay to contact by gravitational radiation on timescales ~106-1010 yr, usually shorter and often much shorter than the cluster age.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics
Publisher:	IOP Science
ISSN:	0004-637X
Date of Acceptance:	27 January 2005
Last Modified:	23 Oct 2022 12:51
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/108845

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