4.7 Article

Low-mass X-ray binaries from black hole retaining globular clusters

Journal

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 477, Issue 2, Pages 1840-1866

Publisher

OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/sty659

Keywords

gravitational waves; stars: black holes; stars: low-mass; globular clusters: general; X-rays: binaries

Funding

  1. Sherman Fairchild Foundation
  2. NSF [PHY-1151197]
  3. NSF/NCSA Blue Waters under PRAC award [ACI-1440083]
  4. NSF award [PHY-0960291]

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Recent studies suggest that globular clusters (GCs) may retain a substantial population of stellar-mass black holes (BHs), in contrast to the long-held belief of a few to zero BHs. We model the population of BH low-mass X-ray binaries (BH-LMXBs), an ideal observable proxy for elusive single BHs, produced from a representative group of Milky Way GCs with variable BH populations. We simulate the formation of BH binaries in GCs through exchange interactions between binary and single stars in the company of tens to hundreds of BHs. Additionally, we consider the impact of the BH population on the rate of compact binaries undergoing gravitational wave driven mergers. The characteristics of the BH-LMXB population and binary properties are sensitive to the GCs structural parameters as well as its unobservable BH population. We find that GCs retaining similar to 1000 BHs produce a galactic population of similar to 150 ejected BH-LMXBs, whereas GCs retaining only similar to 20 BHs produce zero ejected BH-LMXBs. Moreover, we explore the possibility that some of the presently known BH-LMXBs might have originated in GCs and identify five candidate systems.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available