Collective Properties of X-ray Binary Populations of Galaxies. I. Luminosity and Orbital Period Distributions of High-Mass X-ray Binaries

Abstract

We introduce a method for obtaining the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) and the binary-period distribution of populations of high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) in the stellar fields (i.e. outside globular clusters) of normal galaxies. We start from standard distributions of the parameters of those primordial binaries which are the progenitors of HMXBs, and follow the transformation of these ditributions with the aid of a Jacobian formalism as the former evolve into the latter through the processes of the first mass transfer and the supernova (SN) that follows. We discuss the distributions of the post-SN binaries and the HMXBs. We show that our calculated model XLF has a differential slope $\approx -1.6$ with a flattening at low luminosities, in excellent agreement with observations. The calculated binary-period distribution, which basically has a slightly sloping plateau-like character at intermediate periods, with a rise to this plateau at shorter periods and fall-off from it at longer periods, is in agreement with the observed distribution within observational uncertainties. We discuss the physical origin of these distributions. We demonstrate that, while the effects of both (a) the distribution of the properties of the massive companion in the HMXBs, and (b) the primordial orbital distribution and the SN dynamics are important, the former appear to be dominant in determining the XLF, and the latter in determining the HMXB binary-period distribution. We discuss the possible roles of stellar-mass black holes and ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULX) in the observed "universal" XLF of HMXBs.

Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (5)

• Catalogue of high-mass X-ray binaries in the Galaxy ($4^{th}$ edition)
• X-ray Properties of Young Early Type Galaxies: I. X-ray Luminosity Function of LMXBs
• Collisional Hardening of Compact Binaries in Globular Clusters
• Evolution of Compact-Binary Populations in Globular Clusters: A Boltzmann Study. I. The Continuous Limit
• Evolution of Compact-Binary Populations in Globular Clusters: A Boltzmann Study II. Introducing Stochasticity

Cited by in corpus (13)

• High-Mass X-ray Binaries in the Milky Way: A closer look with INTEGRAL
• Population of persistent high mass X-ray binaries in the Milky Way
• Detecting Black Hole Binaries by Gaia
• An INTEGRAL overview of High Mass X-ray Binaries: classes or transitions?
• Magnetic fields of neutron stars in X-ray binaries
• Sizing up the population of gamma-ray binaries
• Modeling X-ray binary evolution in normal galaxies: Insights from SINGS
• Deconstructing the narrow-line region of the nearest obscured quasar
• dart_board: Binary Population Synthesis with Markov Chain Monte Carlo
• Population synthesis on high-mass X-ray binaries: prospects and constraints from the universal X-ray luminosity function
• Faint X-ray Binaries and Their Optical Counterparts in M31
• Collective Properties of X-ray Binary Populations of Galaxies II. Pre-Low-mass X-ray Binary Properties, Formation Rates, and Constraints
• Effects of variability of X-ray binaries on the X-ray luminosity functions of Milky Way