2015/02/13 by Yong Shao, Xiang-Dong Li, Xiang‐Dong Li · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Black hole (networking) #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Milky Way #Neutron star #Orbital period #Orbital plane #Physics #Population #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Stars #X-ray binary #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/802/2/131
13 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
arxiv created 2015/02/13 · openalex publication_date 2015/04/02 · arxiv updated 2015/06/23 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Most ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are believed to be X-ray binary systems, but previous observational and theoretical studies tend to prefer a black hole rather than a neutron star (NS) accretor. The recent discovery of 1.37 s pulsations from the ULX M82 X-2 has established its nature as a magnetized NS. In this work we model the formation history of NS ULXs in an M82- or Milky Way (MW)-like Galaxy, by use of both binary population synthesis and detailed binary evolution calculations. We find that the birth rate is around 10 −4 yr −1 for the incipient X-ray binaries in both cases. We demonstrate the distribution of the ULX population in the donor mass–orbital period plane. Our results suggest that, compared with black hole X-ray binaries, NS X-ray binaries may significantly contribute to the ULX population, and high-mass and intermediate-mass X-ray binaries dominate the NS ULX population in M82- and MW-like Galaxies, respectively.