Observational evidence for the origin of X-ray sources in globular clusters
Abstract
Low-mass X-ray binaries, recycled pulsars, cataclysmic variables and magnetically active binaries are observed as X-ray sources in globular clusters. We discuss the classification of these systems, and find that some presumed active binaries are brighter than expected. We discuss a new statistical method to determine from observations how the formation of X-ray sources depends on the number of stellar encounters and/or on the cluster mass. We show that cluster mass is not a proxy for the encounter number, and that optical identifications are essential in proving the presence of primordial binaries among the low-luminosity X-ray sources.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0710.1804,
title = {Observational evidence for the origin of X-ray sources in globular clusters},
author = {Frank Verbunt and Dave Pooley and Cees Bassa},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0710.1804},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
10 pages, 7 figures, to appear in IAUS 246, Dynamical evolution of dense stellar systems, ed. E. Vesperini