Evolution of low-mass X-ray binaries:dependence on the massof the compact object  

作　　者：Qian Xu Tao Li Xiang-Dong Li 

机构地区：[1]Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China [2]Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics, Ministry of Education, NanjingUniversity, Nanjing 210093, China

出　　处：《Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics》2012年第10期1417-1426,共10页天文和天体物理学研究（英文版）

基　　金：Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China;supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11133001);the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2009CB824800);the Qinglan project of Jiangsu Province

摘　　要：We perform numerical calculations to simulate the evolution of low-mass X-ray binary systems. For the accreting compact object we consider the initial mass of 1.4, 10, 20, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 Mo, corresponding to neutron stars （NSs）, stellar- mass black holes （BHs） and intermediate-mass BHs. Mass transfer in these binaries is driven by nuclear evolution of the donors and/or orbital angular momentum loss due to magnetic braking and gravitational wave radiation. For the different systems, we determine their bifurcation periods Pbif that separate the formation of converging systems from the diverging ones, and show that Pbif changes from ~ 1 d to ≥ 3 d for a 1 Mo donor star, with increasing initial accretor mass from 1.4 to 1000 Mo. This means that the dominant mechanism of orbital angular momentum loss changes from magnetic braking to gravitational radiation. As an illustration we compare the evolution of binaries consisting of a secondary star of 1 Mo at a fixed initial period of 2 d. In the case of the NS or stellar-mass BH accretor, the system evolves to a well-detached He white dwarf-neutron star/black hole pair, but it evolves to an ultra- compact binary if the compact object is an intermediate-mass BH. Thus the binary evolution heavily depends upon the mass of the compact object. However, we show that the final orbital period-white dwarf mass relation found for NS low-mass X-ray binaries is fairly insensitive to the initial mass of the accreting star, even if it is an intermediate-mass BH.We perform numerical calculations to simulate the evolution of low-mass X-ray binary systems. For the accreting compact object we consider the initial mass of 1.4, 10, 20, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 Mo, corresponding to neutron stars （NSs）, stellar- mass black holes （BHs） and intermediate-mass BHs. Mass transfer in these binaries is driven by nuclear evolution of the donors and/or orbital angular momentum loss due to magnetic braking and gravitational wave radiation. For the different systems, we determine their bifurcation periods Pbif that separate the formation of converging systems from the diverging ones, and show that Pbif changes from ~ 1 d to ≥ 3 d for a 1 Mo donor star, with increasing initial accretor mass from 1.4 to 1000 Mo. This means that the dominant mechanism of orbital angular momentum loss changes from magnetic braking to gravitational radiation. As an illustration we compare the evolution of binaries consisting of a secondary star of 1 Mo at a fixed initial period of 2 d. In the case of the NS or stellar-mass BH accretor, the system evolves to a well-detached He white dwarf-neutron star/black hole pair, but it evolves to an ultra- compact binary if the compact object is an intermediate-mass BH. Thus the binary evolution heavily depends upon the mass of the compact object. However, we show that the final orbital period-white dwarf mass relation found for NS low-mass X-ray binaries is fairly insensitive to the initial mass of the accreting star, even if it is an intermediate-mass BH.

关 键 词：binaries： close -- stars： evolution -- stars： neutron -- X-ray： binaries 

分 类 号：P145.8[天文地球—天体物理] TE626.3[天文地球—天文学]