Related papers: Faint Galactic X-ray Binaries
We summarise our recent work on the faint galaxy contribution to the cosmic X-ray background (XRB). At bright X-ray fluxes (in the ROSAT pass band), broad line QSOs dominate the X-ray source population, but at fainter fluxes there is…
X-ray imaging and spectroscopy can be used to probe the binary content of globular clusters. Binaries are thought to play a key role in the dynamical evolution of the clusters by serving as an internal source of energy which counters the…
Recent Chandra observations have revealed a large population of faint X-ray point sources in the Galactic Centre. The observed population consists of about 2000 faint sources in the luminosity range ~10^31-10^33 erg/s. The majority of these…
The determination of fundamental parameters in X-ray luminous (persistent) X-ray binaries has been classically hampered by the large optical luminosity of the accretion disc. New methods, based on irradiation of the donor star and burst…
We present a new edition of the catalogue of high-mass X-ray binaries in the Galaxy. The catalogue contains source name(s), coordinates, finding chart, X-ray luminosity, system parameters, and stellar parameters of the components and other…
We present a new edition of the catalogue of the low-mass X-ray binaries in the Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds. The catalogue contains source name(s), coordinates, finding chart, X-ray luminosity, system parameters, and stellar parameters…
A large fraction of X-ray sources in our Galaxy are low-mass X-ray binaries, containing a black hole or a neutron star accreting from a gravitationally bound low-mass ($\leq$1 M$_\odot$) companion star. These systems are among the older…
Burst-only sources are X-ray sources showing up only during short bursts but with no persistent emission (at least with the monitoring instrument which led to their discovery). These bursts have spectral characteristics consistent with…
We review recent results on populations of compact X-ray sources in normal galaxies. The luminosity distributions of low and high mass X-ray binaries in nearby galaxies appear to be described by the respective ``universal'' luminosity…
Observations with BeppoSAX, RXTE and Chandra suggest that many of the bright X-ray sources in globular clusters have ultrashort binary periods. This is remarkable as such systems are not easily formed. With accurate optical astrometry of…
We investigate models for the class of ultraluminous non-nuclear X-ray sources (ULXs) seen in a number of galaxies and probably associated with star-forming regions. Models where the X-ray emission is assumed to be isotropic run into…
We discuss a scenario for the very faint X-ray transients as X-ray binaries fed by winds from detached M-dwarf donors in binary stars within the "period gap" -- the range of periods where donor stars have become fully convective, and…
X-ray binaries may have helped reionize the early Universe by enabling Lyman continuum escape. We analyzed a set of 8 local galaxies that are potential Lyman leaking galaxies, identified by a blue color and weak emission lines, using…
A fraction of high-mass X-ray binaries are supergiant fast X-ray transients. These systems have on average low X-ray luminosities, but display short flares during which their X-ray luminosity rises by a few orders of magnitude. The leading…
X-ray appearance of normal galaxies is mainly determined by X-ray binaries powered by accretion onto a neutron star or a stellar mass black hole. Their populations scale with the star-formation rate and stellar mass of the host galaxy and…
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…
As the Chandra X-ray Observatory mission matures, increasing numbers of nearby galaxies are being observed multiple times, sampling the variability of extragalactic X-ray binaries on timescales extending from seconds to years. We present…
We investigated the X-ray spectral properties of a collection of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) within a sample of 15 nearby early-type galaxies observed with Chandra. We find that the spectrum of the sum of the sources in a given galaxy…
A new type of high-energy binary systems has been revealed by the INTEGRAL satellite. These sources are in the course of being unveiled by means of multi-wavelength optical, near- and mid-infrared observations. Among these sources, two…
This review summarizes the observational constraints on the mass spectrum of compact objects in X-ray binaries. We currently have 20 X-ray binaries with confirmed black holes, based on dynamical information (i.e. mass in excess of 3 Msun).…