On the Bimodal Spin Period Distribution of Be/X-ray Pulsars
arXiv:1901.04707 · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aafee0
Abstract
It has been reported that there are two populations of Be/X-ray pulsars, with the pulse period distribution peaked at 10 s and 200 s, respectively. A possible explanation of this bimodal distribution is related to different accretion modes in Be/X-ray binaries. In this work, we investigate the spin evolution of Be/X-ray pulsars based on the magnetically threaded accretion disk model. Compared with previous works, we take into account several distinct and important factors of Be/X-ray binaries, including the transient accretion behavior and possible change of the accretion disk structure during quiescence. We demonstrate that current Be/X-ray pulsars are close to the spin equilibrium determined by the balance of spin-up during outbursts and spin-down during quiescence, and that the observed bimodal distribution can be well reproduced by the equilibrium spin periods with reasonable input parameters.
arXiv comment13 pages, 3 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ
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