Recurring outbursts associated with matter flowing onto compact stellar remnants (such as black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs) in close binary systems provide a way of constraining the poorly ...understood accretion process. The light curves of these outbursts are shaped by the efficiency of angular-momentum (and thus mass) transport in the accretion disks, which has traditionally been encoded in a viscosity parameter, α. Numerical simulations of the magneto-rotational instability that is believed to be the physical mechanism behind this transport yield values of α of roughly 0.1-0.2, consistent with values determined from observations of accreting white dwarfs. Equivalent viscosity parameters have hitherto not been estimated for disks around neutron stars or black holes. Here we report the results of an analysis of archival X-ray light curves of 21 outbursts in black-hole X-ray binaries. By applying a Bayesian approach to a model of accretion, we determine corresponding values of α of around 0.2-1.0. These high values may be interpreted as an indication either of a very high intrinsic rate of angular-momentum transport in the disk, which could be sustained by the magneto-rotational instability only if a large-scale magnetic field threads the disk, or that mass is being lost from the disk through substantial outflows, which strongly shape the outburst in the black-hole X-ray binary. The lack of correlation between our estimates of α and the accretion state of the binaries implies that such outflows can remove a substantial fraction of the disk mass in all accretion states and therefore suggests that the outflows correspond to magnetically driven disk winds rather than thermally driven ones, which require specific radiative conditions.
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ABSTRACT With the advent of more sensitive all-sky instruments, the transient universe is being probed in greater depth than ever before. Taking advantage of available resources, we have established ...a comprehensive database of black hole (and black hole candidate) X-ray binary (BHXB) activity between 1996 and 2015 as revealed by all-sky instruments, scanning surveys, and select narrow-field X-ray instruments on board the INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, Monitor of All-Sky X-ray Image, Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, and Swift telescopes; the Whole-sky Alberta Time-resolved Comprehensive black-Hole Database Of the Galaxy or WATCHDOG. Over the past two decades, we have detected 132 transient outbursts, tracked and classified behavior occurring in 47 transient and 10 persistently accreting BHs, and performed a statistical study on a number of outburst properties across the Galactic population. We find that outbursts undergone by BHXBs that do not reach the thermally dominant accretion state make up a substantial fraction (∼40%) of the Galactic transient BHXB outburst sample over the past ∼20 years. Our findings suggest that this "hard-only" behavior, observed in transient and persistently accreting BHXBs, is neither a rare nor recent phenomenon and may be indicative of an underlying physical process, relatively common among binary BHs, involving the mass-transfer rate onto the BH remaining at a low level rather than increasing as the outburst evolves. We discuss how the larger number of these "hard-only" outbursts and detected outbursts in general have significant implications for both the luminosity function and mass-transfer history of the Galactic BHXB population.
Abstract
We analyse observations of eight quiescent low-mass X-ray binaries in globular clusters and combine them to determine the neutron star mass–radius curve and the equation of state of dense ...matter. We determine the effect that several uncertainties may have on our results, including uncertainties in the distance, the atmosphere composition, the neutron star maximum mass, the neutron star mass distribution, the possible presence of a hotspot on the neutron star surface, and the prior choice for the equation of state of dense matter. The distance uncertainty is implemented in a new Gaussian blurring method that can be directly applied to the probability distribution over mass and radius. We find that the radius of a 1.4 solar mass neutron star is most likely from 10 to 14 km and that tighter constraints are only possible with stronger assumptions about the nature of the neutron stars, the systematics of the observations, or the nature of dense matter. Strong phase transitions in the equation of state are preferred, and in this case, the radius is likely smaller than 12 km. However, radii larger than 12 km are preferred if the neutron stars have uneven temperature distributions.
We report the detection of steady radio emission from the known X-ray source X9 in the globular cluster 47 Tuc. With a double-peaked C iv emission line in its ultraviolet spectrum providing a clear ...signature of accretion, this source had been previously classified as a cataclysmic variable. In deep ATCA (Australia Telescope Compact Array) imaging from 2010 and 2013, we identified a steady radio source at both 5.5 and 9.0 GHz, with a radio spectral index (defined as S
ν ∝ να) of α = −0.4 ± 0.4. Our measured flux density of 42 ± 4 μJy beam−1 at 5.5 GHz implies a radio luminosity (νL
ν) of 5.8 × 1027 erg s−1, significantly higher than any previous radio detection of an accreting white dwarf. Transitional millisecond pulsars, which have the highest radio-to-X-ray flux ratios among accreting neutron stars (still a factor of a few below accreting black holes at the same L
X), show distinctly different patterns of X-ray and radio variability than X9. When combined with archival X-ray measurements, our radio detection places 47 Tuc X9 very close to the radio/X-ray correlation for accreting black holes, and we explore the possibility that this source is instead a quiescent stellar-mass black hole X-ray binary. The nature of the donor star is uncertain; although the luminosity of the optical counterpart is consistent with a low-mass main-sequence donor star, the mass transfer rate required to produce the high quiescent X-ray luminosity of 1033 erg s−1 suggests the system may instead be ultracompact, with an orbital period of order 25 min. This is the fourth quiescent black hole candidate discovered to date in a Galactic globular cluster, and the only one with a confirmed accretion signature from its optical/ultraviolet spectrum.
In this paper, the second of a series, we study the stellar dynamical and evolutionary processes leading to the formation of compact binaries containing neutron stars (NSs) in dense globular ...clusters. For this study, 70 dense clusters were simulated independently, with a total stellar mass ∼2 × 107M⊙, exceeding the total mass of all dense globular clusters in our Galaxy. We find that, in order to reproduce the empirically derived formation rate of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), we must assume that NSs can be formed via electron-capture supernovae with typical natal kicks smaller than in core-collapse supernovae. Our results explain the observed dependence of the number of LMXBs on ‘collision number’ as well as the large scatter observed between different globular clusters. We predict that the number of quiescent LMXBs in different clusters should not have a strong metallicity dependence. We compare the results obtained from our simulations with the observed population of millisecond pulsars (MSPs). We find that in our cluster model the following mass-gaining events create populations of MSPs that do not match the observations (either they are inconsistent with the observed LMXB production rates, or the inferred binary periods or companion masses are not observed among radio bMSPs): (i) accretion during a common-envelope event with a NS formed through electron-capture supernovae (ECSNe), and (ii) mass transfer (MT) from a white dwarf donor. Some processes lead only to a mild recycling – physical collisions or MT in a post-accretion-induced collapse system. In addition, for MSPs, we distinguish low magnetic field (long-lived) and high magnetic field (short-lived) populations, where in the latter NSs are formed as a result of accretion-induced collapse or merger-induced collapse. With this distinction and by considering only those mass-gaining events that appear to lead to NS recycling, we obtain good agreement of our models with the numbers and characteristics of observed MSPs in 47 Tuc and Terzan 5, as well as with the cumulative statistics for MSPs detected in globular clusters of different dynamical properties. We find that significant production of merging double NSs potentially detectable as short γ-ray bursts occurs only in very dense, most likely core-collapsed clusters.
We observed SAX J1808.4-3658 (1808), the first accreting millisecond pulsar, in deep quiescence with XMM-Newton and (near simultaneously) Gemini-South. The X-ray spectrum of 1808 is similar to that ...observed in quiescence in 2001 and 2006, describable by an absorbed power law with photon index 1.74 ± 0.11 and unabsorbed X-ray luminosity LX = 7.9 ± 0.7 X 1031 ergs s-1, for NH = 1.3 X 1021 cm-2. Fitting all the quiescent XMM-Newton X-ray spectra with a power law, we constrain any thermally emitting neutron star (NS) with a hydrogen atmosphere to have a temperature less than 30 eV and L NS (0.01-10 keV) <6.2 X 1030 ergs s-1. A thermal plasma model also gives an acceptable fit to the continuum. Adding an NS component to the plasma model produces less stringent constraints on the NS; a temperature of 36+4 -8 eV and L NS (0.01-10 keV) = 1.3+0.6 -0.8 X 1031 ergs s-1. In the framework of the current theory of NS heating and cooling, the constraints on the thermal luminosity of 1808 and 1H 1905+000 require strongly enhanced cooling in the cores of these NSs. We compile data from the literature on the mass transfer rates and quiescent thermal flux of the largest possible sample of transient NS low-mass X-ray binaries. We identify a thermal component in the quiescent spectrum of the accreting millisecond pulsar IGR J00291+5934, which is consistent with the standard cooling model. The contrast between the cooling rates of IGR J00291+5934 and 1808 suggests that 1808 may have a significantly larger mass. This can be interpreted as arising from differences in the binary evolution history or initial NS mass in these otherwise similar systems.
We search the literature for reports on the spectral properties of neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries when they have accretion luminosities between 1034 and 1036 erg s−1, corresponding to roughly ...0.01–1 per cent of the Eddington accretion rate for a neutron star. We found that in this luminosity range the photon index (obtained from fitting a simple absorbed power law in the 0.5–10 keV range) increases with decreasing 0.5–10 keV X-ray luminosity (i.e. the spectrum softens). Such behaviour has been reported before for individual sources, but here we demonstrate that very likely most (if not all) neutron star systems behave in a similar manner and possibly even follow a universal relation. When comparing the neutron star systems with black hole systems, it is clear that most black hole binaries have significantly harder spectra at luminosities of 1034–1035 erg s−1. Despite a limited number of data points, there are indications that these spectral differences also extend to the 1035–1036 erg s−1 range, but above a luminosity of 1035 erg s−1 the separation between neutron star and black hole systems is not as clear as below. In addition, the black hole spectra only become softer below luminosities of 1034 erg s−1 compared to 1036 erg s−1 for the neutron star systems. This observed difference between the neutron star binaries and black hole ones suggests that the spectral properties (between 0.5 and 10 keV) at 1034–1035 erg s−1 can be used to tentatively determine the nature of the accretor in unclassified X-ray binaries. More observations in this luminosity range are needed to determine how robust this diagnostic tool is and whether or not there are (many) systems that do not follow the general trend. We discuss our results in the context of properties of the accretion flow at low luminosities and we suggest that the observed spectral differences likely arise from the neutron star surface becoming dominantly visible in the X-ray spectra. We also suggest that both the thermal component and the non-thermal component might be caused by low-level accretion on to the neutron star surface for luminosities below a few times 1034 erg s−1.
We report the discovery of X-ray pulsations at 105.2 Hz (9.5 ms) from the transient X-ray binary IGR J16597–3704 using NuSTAR and Swift. The source was discovered by INTEGRAL in the globular cluster ...NGC 6256 at a distance of 9.1 kpc. The X-ray pulsations show a clear Doppler modulation that implies an orbital period of ~46 min and a projected semi-major axis of ~5 lt-ms, which makes IGR J16597–3704 an ultracompact X-ray binary system. We estimated a minimum companion mass of 6.5 × 10−10 M⊙, assuming a neutron star mass of 1.4 M⊙, and an inclination angle of <75° (suggested by the absence of eclipses or dips in its light curve). The broad-band energy spectrum of the source is well described by a disk blackbody component (kT ~ 1.4 keV) plus a comptonised power-law with photon index ~2.3 and an electron temperature of ~30 keV. Radio pulsations from the source were unsuccessfully searched for with the Parkes Observatory.
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Abstract
We present 22 new (+3 confirmed) cataclysmic variables (CVs) in the non-core-collapsed globular cluster 47 Tucanae (47 Tuc). The total number of CVs in the cluster is now 43, the largest ...sample in any globular cluster so far. For the identifications we used near-ultraviolet (NUV) and optical images from the Hubble Space Telescope, in combination with X-ray results from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. This allowed us to build the deepest NUV CV luminosity function of the cluster to date. We found that the CVs in 47 Tuc are more concentrated towards the cluster centre than the main-sequence turn-off stars. We compared our results to the CV populations of the core-collapsed globular clusters NGC 6397 and NGC 6752. We found that 47 Tuc has fewer bright CVs per unit mass than those two other clusters. That suggests that dynamical interactions in core-collapsed clusters play a major role creating new CVs. In 47 Tuc, the CV population is probably dominated by primordial and old dynamically formed systems. We estimated that the CVs in 47 Tuc have total masses of ∼1.4 M⊙. We also found that the X-ray luminosity function of the CVs in the three clusters is bimodal. Additionally, we discuss a possible double degenerate system and an intriguing/unclassified object. Finally, we present four systems that could be millisecond pulsar companions given their X-ray and NUV/optical colours. For one of them we present very strong evidence for being an ablated companion. The other three could be CO or He white dwarfs.
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