On the rarity of X-ray binaries with Wolf-Rayet donors
- Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, CA (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Lab., Batavia, IL (United States)
- Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
The paucity of High mass X-Ray binaries (HMXB) consisting of a neutron star (NS) accretor and Wolf-Rayet (WR) donor has long been at odds with expectations from population synthesis studies indicating that these systems should survive as the evolved offspring of the observed HMXB population. This tension is particularly troubling in light of recent observations uncovering a preponderance of HMXBs containing loosely bound Be donors which would be expected to naturally evolve into WR-HMXBs. Reconciling the unexpectedly large population of Be-HMXBs with the lack of observed WR-HMXB sources thus serves to isolate the dynamics of CE physics from other binary evolution parameters. We find that binary mergers during CE events must be common in order to resolve tension between these observed populations. Furthermore, future observations which better constrain the background population of loosely bound O/B-NS binaries are likely to place significant constraints on the efficiency of CE removal.
- Research Organization:
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-07CH11359
- OSTI ID:
- 1029651
- Report Number(s):
- FERMILAB-PUB-11-518-AT
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 748, Issue 2; ISSN 0004-637X
- Publisher:
- Institute of Physics (IOP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
A MODERN SEARCH FOR WOLF–RAYET STARS IN THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS. II. A SECOND YEAR OF DISCOVERIES
Masses and the evolution of Wolf-Rayet binaries