A large population of neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries with long outburst recurrence time ?
arXiv:2406.02020 · doi:10.1093/mnras/stae1056
Abstract
Low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) with neutron stars show quite different features which depend on the rate of mass transfer from the donor star. With a high transfer rate the Z sources are in a persistent soft spectral state, with a moderate rate the transient Atoll sources have outburst cycles like the black hole X-ray binaries. The observations document very long outburst recurrence times for quite a number of sources. We follow with our computations the evolution of the accretion disc until the onset of the ionization instability. For sources with a low mass transfer rate the accumulation of matter in the disc is essentially reduced due to the continuous evaporation of matter from the disc to the coronal flow. Different mass transfer rates result in nearly the same amount of matter accumulated for the outburst which means the outburst properties are similar for sources with short and sources with long outburst cycles, contrary to some expectations. Then of systems with long recurrence time less sources will be detected and the total population of LMXBs could be larger than it appears. This would relieve the apparent problem that the observed number of LMXBs as progenitors of millisecond pulsars (MSP) is too small compared to the number of MSP. Concerning the few quasi-persistent sources with year-long soft states we argue that these states are not outbursts, but quasi-stationary hot states as in Z sources.
7 pages, 4 figures, published in MNRAS
References in corpus (13)
- Thermonuclear (type-I) X-ray bursts observed by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer
- Detecting gravitational wave emission from the known accreting neutron stars
- Black hole-like hysteresis and accretion states in neutron star low mass X-ray binaries
- RXTE observations of the first transient Z source XTE J1701-462: shedding new light on mass accretion in luminous neutron star LMXBs
- X-ray outbursts of low-mass X-ray binary transients observed in the RXTE era
- NuSTAR Observations of the Accreting Atolls GX 3+1, 4U 1702-429, 4U 0614+091, and 4U 1746-371
- An in-depth study of a neutron star accreting at low Eddington rate: On the possibility of a truncated disk and an outflow
- The neutron star soft X-ray transient 1H1905+000 in quiescence
- Indications of non-conservative mass-transfer in AMXPs
- A strongly changing accretion morphology during the outburst decay of the neutron star X-ray binary 4U 1608-52
- The relation between outburst rate and orbital period in low-mass X-ray binary transients
- Constraining the properties of dense neutron star cores: The case of the low-mass X-ray binary HETE J1900.1-2455
- On the recurrence times of neutron star X-ray binary transients and the nature of the Galactic Centre quiescent X-ray binaries