Population synthesis on high-mass X-ray binaries: prospects and constraints from the universal X-ray luminosity function

Abstract

Using an updated population synthesis code initially developed by Hurley et al. we modeled the synthetic X-ray binary (XRB) populations for direct comparison with the universal, featureless X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) in star-forming galaxies. Our main goal is to use the universal XLF to constrain the model parameters, given the current knowledge of binary evolution. We find that the one-dimensional (1D) Maxwellian velocity dispersion of the natal kick can be constrained to be of the order of ~150km/s, supporting earlier findings that neutron stars (NSs) formed in binaries seem to receive significantly smaller natal kicks than the velocities of Galactic single pulsars would indicate. The super-Eddington accretion factor is further confirmed in the framework of stellar mass black holes (BHs), revealing the true origin of the most of the ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) may indeed be the high-luminosity extension of ordinary HMXBs which harbor stellar-mass BHs rather than exotic intermediate-mass BHs or ones. We present the detail properties of the model-predicted present-day HMXBs, which may be investigated by future high-resolution X-ray and optical observations of sources in nearby star-forming galaxies.

41 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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• On the Neutron Star/Black Hole Mass Gap and Black Hole Searches
• X-ray luminosity function of high-mass X-ray binaries: Studying the signatures of different physical processes using detailed binary evolution calculations
• Populations of evolved massive binary stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud II: Predictions from rapid binary evolution
• Finding the birthplace of HMXBs in the Galaxy using Gaia EDR3: kinematical age determination through orbit integration
• Exploring the nature of ultra-luminous X-ray sources across stellar population ages using detailed binary evolution calculations
• Common Envelope Mechanisms: Constraints from the X-ray Luminosity Function of High Mass X-ray Binaries
• The High Mass X-ray Binaries in star-forming galaxies
• A NuSTAR Census of the X-ray Binary Population of the M31 Disk