Black-Hole Transients and the Eddington Limit

Abstract

I show that the Eddington limit implies a critical orbital period P_crit(BH) = 2d beyond which black-hole LMXBs cannot appear as persistent systems. The unusual behaviour of GRO J1655-40 may result from its location close to this critical period.

3 pages, no figures; to appear in MNRAS

References in corpus (5)

• X-ray irradiation in low mass binary systems
• Why Low-Mass Black-Hole Binaries Are Transient
• The 1996 Outburst of GRO J1655-40: The Challenge of Interpreting the Multi-wavelength Spectra
• Transients Among Binaries with Evolved Low-Mass Companions
• The Transient Nature of GRO J1655-40 and its Evolutionary State

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• The Brightest Point X-Ray Sources in Elliptical Galaxies and the Mass Spectrum of Accreting Black Holes
• The decline and fall of GRS 1915+105: the end is nigh?
• The Remarkable Stability of Probable Black Hole Low-Mass X-ray Binaries in Nearby Galaxies
• The gravitational wave signature of young and dense star clusters