Ivanova, N., Rasio, F. A., Lombardi, Jr., J. C., Dooley, Katherine ![]() |
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 |
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Date Type: | Publication |
Status: | Published |
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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