THE EFFECT OF STARBURST METALLICITY ON BRIGHT X-RAY BINARY FORMATION PATHWAYS

Journal Article · Mon Dec 20 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/725/2/1984· OSTI ID:21476657

Linden, T ^[1]; Kalogera, V; Sepinsky, J F ^[2]; Prestwich, A; Zezas, A ^[3]; Gallagher, J S ^[4]

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1. Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
2. Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States)
3. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
4. Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706-1582 (United States)

We investigate the characteristics of young (<20 Myr) and bright (L{sub X} > 1 x 10{sup 36} erg s{sup -1}) high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) and find the population to be strongly metallicity dependent. We separate the model populations among two distinct formation pathways: (1) systems undergoing active Roche lobe overflow (RLO) and (2) wind accretion systems with donors in the (super)giant stage, which we find to dominate the HMXB population. We find metallicity to primarily affect the number of systems which move through each formation pathway, rather than the observable parameters of systems which move through each individual pathway. We discuss the most important model parameters affecting the HMXB population at both low and high metallicities. Using these results, we show that (1) the population of ultra-luminous X-ray sources can be consistently described by very bright HMXBs which undergo stable RLO with mild super-Eddington accretion and (2) the HMXB population of the bright starburst galaxy NGC 1569 is likely dominated by one extremely metal-poor starburst cluster.

• OSTI ID: 21476657
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 725, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/725/2/1984; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
COSMIC X-RAY SOURCES
GALAXIES
GALAXY CLUSTERS
MASS
METALS
ROCHE EQUIPOTENTIALS
SUPERNOVAE
X RADIATION
BINARY STARS
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
POTENTIALS
RADIATIONS
STARS
VARIABLE STARS