Evolution of black-hole intermediate-mass X-ray binaries: the influence of a circumbinary disc

Abstract

Justham, Rappaport & Podsiadlowski (2006) recently suggested that black-hole low-mass X-ray binaries (BHLMXBs) with short orbital periods may have evolved from black-hole intermediate-mass X-ray binaries (BHIMXBs). In their model the secondaries in BHIMXBs are assumed to possess anomalously high magnetic fields, so that magnetic braking can lead to substantial loss of angular momentum. In this paper we propose an alternative mechanism for orbital angular momentum loss in BHIMXBs. We assume that a small fraction $\delta$ of the transferred mass from the donor star form a circumbinary disc surrounding the binary system. The tidal torques exerted by the disc can effectively drain orbital angular momentum from the binary. We have numerically calculated the evolutionary sequences of BHIMXBs, to examine the influence of the circumbinary disc on the binary evolution. Our results indicate when $δ\la 0.01-0.1$ (depending on the initial orbital periods), the circumbinary disc can cause secular orbital shrinking, leading to the formation of compact BHLMXBs, otherwise the orbits always expand during the evolution. This scenario also suggests the possible existence of luminous, persistent BHLMXBs, but it suffers the same problem as in Justham, Rappaport & Podsiadlowski (2006) that, the predicted effective temperatures of the donor stars are significantly higher than those of the observed donor stars in BHLMXBs.

7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (3)

• Magnetic Braking of Ap/Bp Stars: Application to Compact Black-Hole X-Ray Binaries
• Orbital Evolution of Algol Binaries with a Circumbinary Disk
• Low Mass X-ray Binary As the Progenitor of PSR J1713+0747

Cited by in corpus (24)

• Common Envelope Evolution: Where we stand and how we can move forward
• Formation of black widows and redbacks -- two distinct populations of eclipsing binary millisecond pulsars
• Evolution of LMXBs under Different Magnetic Braking Prescriptions
• Population Synthesis of Black Hole X-Ray Binaries
• Evolving to type Ia supernovae with long delay time
• On the Formation of Galactic Black Hole Low-Mass X-ray Binaries
• Formation of Black Hole Low-Mass X-ray Binaries
• On the Neutron Star/Black Hole Mass Gap and Black Hole Searches
• Rapid orbital decay in detached binaries: evidence for circumbinary disks
• Orbital period decay of compact black hole x-ray binaries: the influence of circumbinary disks?
• Fast orbital shrinkage of black hole X-ray binaries driven by circumbinary disks
• Mass transfer and magnetic braking in Sco X-1
• Compact intermediate-mass black hole X-ray binaries: potential LISA sources?
• Formation of ultra-compact X-ray binaries through circum-binary disk-driven mass transfer
• Dynamical formation of Black Hole Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries in the field - an alternative to common envelope
• DE CVn: an eclipsing post-common envelope binary with a circumbinary disk and a giant planet
• Black Hole Ultra-compact X-ray Binaries: Galactic Low-Frequency Gravitational Wave Sources
• Can angular momentum loss cause the period change of NN Ser?
• Quark-Novae in Neutron Star-White-Dwarf Binaries: A model for luminous (spin-down powered) sub-Chandrasekhar-mass Type Ia Supernovae ?
• Aspherical supernova explosions and formation of compact black hole low-mass X-ray binaries
• A Circumbinary Disk Scenario For The Negative Orbital-Period Derivative Of The Ultracompact X-ray Binary 4u1820-303
• On the Formation of SMC X-1: the Effect of Mass and Orbital Angular Momentum Loss
• Ultra-compact X-ray Binaries: A Review
• Are There Pre-Main-Sequence/Black Hole X-ray Binaries?