Transient X-ray Sources as Extremely Eccentric Mass-Transfer Binaries with Compact Companions
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
2026-03-02 v1 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Abstract
It has long been suggested that X-ray transients are produced at periastron of stellar-compact object binaries with eccentric orbits. Recoil of matter evaporated from the star by X-rays from matter transferred at periastron increases the orbital semi-major axis and eccentricity. After periastrons the object would be a transient X-ray source, a Galactic analogue of a tidal disruption event (TDE), but recurrent with a gradually increasing period rather than catastrophic.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.23474,
title = {Transient X-ray Sources as Extremely Eccentric Mass-Transfer Binaries with Compact Companions},
author = {Jonathan I. Katz and Michael A. Nowak},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.23474},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
4 pp