English

The formation of black-holes in low-mass X-ray binaries

Astrophysics 2011-05-23 v1

Abstract

We calculate the formation rates of low-mass X-ray binaries with a black hole. Both a semi-analytic and a more detailed model predict formation rates two orders of magnitude lower than derived from the observations. Solution of this conundrum requires either that stars with masses less than 20M_\odot can evolve into a black hole, or that stellar wind from a member of a binary is accompanied by a much larger loss of angular momentum than hitherto assumed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9701037,
  title  = {The formation of black-holes in low-mass X-ray binaries},
  author = {Simon F. Portegies Zwart and Frank Verbunt and Ene Ergma},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9701037},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

6 pages, including 4 figures. accepted for publication in publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics