Low Mass X-ray Binaries and Metallicity Dependence: Story of Failures

Abstract

Observations of galactic and extra-galactic globular clusters have shown that on average metal-rich clusters are ~3 times as likely to contain a bright X-ray source than their metal-poor counterparts. We propose that this can be explained by taking into account the difference in the stellar structure of main sequence donors with masses between ~0.85 Msun and ~1.25 Msun at different metallicities. Metal-poor main sequence stars in this mass range do not have an outer convective zone while metal-rich stars do. The absence of this zone turns off magnetic braking, a powerful mechanism of orbital shrinkage, leading to the failure of dynamically formed main sequence - neutron star binaries to start mass transfer or appear as bright low-mass X-ray binaries.

7 pages in ApJ style, 7 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (4)

• The Evolution of Binary Fractions in Globular Clusters
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey III. Chandra and HST Observations of Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries and Globular Clusters in M87
• Formation of Ultracompact X-ray Binaries in Dense Star Clusters
• Three Additional Quiescent Low-Mass X-ray Binary Candidates in 47 Tucanae

Cited by in corpus (39)

• Compact Object Modeling with the StarTrack Population Synthesis Code
• Formation and evolution of compact binaries in globular clusters: II. Binaries with neutron stars
• Formation and evolution of compact binaries in globular clusters: I.Binaries with white dwarfs
• The Low-Mass X-ray Binary and Globular Cluster Connection in Virgo Cluster Early-type Galaxies: Optical Properties
• Faint X-ray Sources in the Globular Cluster Terzan 5
• Low Mass X-ray Binaries in 6 Elliptical Galaxies: Connection to Globular Clusters
• Probing the Formation of Low Mass X-ray Binaries in Globular Clusters and the Field
• Comparing GC and Field LMXBs in Elliptical Galaxies with deep Chandra and Hubble data
• Dynamical Formation of Millisecond Pulsars in Globular Clusters
• The binarity of Milky Way F,G,K stars as a function of effective temperature and metallicity
• Low-Mass X-ray Binaries and Globular Clusters in Early-Type Galaxies. I. Chandra Observations
• Fermi Discovery of Gamma-ray Emission from the Globular Cluster Terzan 5
• Probing the GC-LMXB connection in NGC 1399: a wide-field study with HST and Chandra
• The Close Binary Properties of Massive Stars in the Milky Way and Low-Metallicity Magellanic Clouds
• Another thread in the tapestry of stellar feedback: X-ray binaries
• The evolution of the binary population in globular clusters: a full analytical computation
• A {\it Chandra} Survey of Milky Way Globular Clusters I: Emissivity and Abundance of Weak X-ray Sources
• The Origin of Gamma-Rays from Globular Clusters
• Metallicity Effect on LMXB Formation in Globular Clusters
• The Fundamental Plane of Gamma-ray Globular Clusters
• A systematic study of low mass X-ray binaries in the M31 globular cluster system
• X-ray Spectral Identification of Three Candidate Quiescent Low-Mass X-ray Binaries in the Globular Cluster NGC 6304
• Field and Globular Cluster LMXBs in NGC 4278
• The radial distribution of X-ray Binaries and Globular Clusters in NGC 4649 and their relation with the local stellar mass density
• Spatial distribution of luminous X-ray binaries in spiral galaxies
• Gamma-ray emission from globular clusters
• Low-Mass X-ray Binaries and Globular Clusters in Early-Type Galaxies. II. Globular Cluster Candidates and their Mass-Metallicity Relation
• Chandra Observations of the X-ray Point Source Population in NGC 4636
• On the origin of the metallicity dependence in dynamically formed extragalactic low-mass X-ray binaries
• Numerical modelling of gamma-ray emission produced by electrons originating from the magnetospheres of millisecond pulsars in globular clusters
• Gamma-ray emission from high Galactic latitude globular clusters
• The Luminosity Function of Low Mass X-Ray Binaries in the Globular Cluster System of NGC 1399
• Globular clusters hosting intermediate-mass black-holes: no mass-segregation based candidates
• Compact objects in globular clusters
• Stacking Star Clusters in M51: Searching for Faint X-Ray Binaries
• Neutron Stars and Black Holes in Star Clusters
• Evolution of binaries with compact objects in globular clusters
• An excess of low-mass X-ray binaries in the outer halo of NGC 4472
• Clues to Globular Cluster Evolution from Multiwavelength Observations of Extragalactic Systems