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The Globular Cluster Population of X-ray Binaries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

Frank Verbunt  and
Piet Hut
Frank Verbunt
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institut für, Extraterrestrische Physik, 8046 Garching bei München, Federal Republic of Germany
Piet Hut
Affiliation:
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, U.S.A.

Abstract

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We discuss formation mechanisms for low-mass X-ray binaries in globular clusters. We apply the most efficient mechanism, tidal capture in close two-body encounters between neutron and main-sequence stars, to the clusters of our galaxy. The observed number of X-ray sources in these can be explained if the birth velocities of neutron stars are higher than estimated from velocity measurements of radiopulsars, or if the initial mass function steepens at high masses. We perform a statistical test on the distribution of X-ray sources with respect to the number of close encounters in globular clusters, and find satisfactory agreement between the tidal capture theory and observation, apart from the presence of low-mass X-ray binaries in four clusters with a very low encounter rate: Ter 1, Ter 2, Gr 1 and NGC 6712.

EXOSAT observations indicate that some dim globular cluster sources may be less luminous than hitherto assumed, and support the view that the brighter dim sources may be soft X-ray transients in quiescence.

Type
II. Accretion Powered Pulsars
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 125: The Origin and Evolution of Neutron Stars , 1987 , pp. 187 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1987 

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