Related papers: Supernova Kicks and Misaligned Be Star Binaries
The high speeds seen in rapidly rotating pulsars after supernova explosions present a longstanding puzzle in astrophysics. Numerous theories have been suggested over the years to explain this sudden "kick" imparted to the neutron star, yet…
The aim of this work is to study the imprints that different models for black hole (BH) and neutron star (NS) formation have on the Galactic distribution of X-ray binaries (XRBs) which contain these objects. We find that the root mean…
In a population of multiple protostellar systems with discs, the sub-population of circumbinary discs whose orbital plane is highly misaligned with respect to the binary's orbital plane constrains the initial distribution of orbital…
As the largest population of high mass X-ray binaries, Be/X-ray binaries provide an excellent laboratory to investigate the extreme physics of neutron stars. It is generally accepted that Be stars possess a circumstellar disc, providing an…
We have analyzed the kinematical parameters of Cir X-1 to constrain the nature of its companion star, the eccentricity of the binary and the pre-supernova parameter space. We argue that the companion is most likely to be a low-mass (< 2.0…
Rapid rotation is a fundamental characteristic of classical Be stars and a crucial property allowing for the formation of their circumstellar disks. Past evolution in a mass and angular momentum transferring binary system offers a plausible…
Be stars are rapidly rotating B type stars. The origin of their rapid rotation is not certain, but binary interaction remains to be a possibility. In this work we investigate the formation of Be stars resulting from mass transfer in…
The purpose of this work is to review the observational properties of Be/X-ray binaries. The open questions in Be/X-ray binaries include those related to the Be star companion, that is, the so-called "Be phenomenon", such as, timescales…
We investigate an interesting new class of high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) with long orbital periods (P_orb > 30 days) and low eccentricities (e <~ 0.2). The orbital parameters suggest that the neutron stars in these systems did not…
The formation of neutron stars is associated with powerful astrophysical transients such as supernovae. In many cases, asymmetries in the supernova explosions are thought to be responsible for the large observed velocities of neutron stars.…
A substantial fraction of stars can be found in wide binaries with projected separations between $\sim10^2$ and $10^5\,\rm AU$. In the standard lore of binary physics, these would evolve as effectively single stars that remotely orbit one…
Runaway stars are stars observed to have large peculiar velocities. Two mechanisms are thought to contribute to the ejection of runaway stars, both involve binarity (or higher multiplicity). In the binary supernova scenario a runaway star…
There are over 100 Be stars that are known to have neutron star companions but only one such system with a black hole. Previous theoretical work suggests this is not due to their formation but due to differences in X-ray luminosity. It has…
Since the discovery of the first double neutron star (DNS) system in 1975 by Hulse and Taylor, there are currently 8 confirmed DNS in our galaxy. For every system, the masses of both neutron stars, the orbital semi- major axis and…
We investigate the statistics of isolated recycled pulsars and double neutron star binaries in the Galactic disk. Since recycled pulsars are believed to form through accretion and spinup in close binaries, the isolated objects presumably…
In Bray and Eldridge (2017), we proposed a simple neutron star kick formula, v kick = alpha (M ejecta / M remnant) + beta to explain the observed 2D velocities of young single neutron stars. Using this kick we found that there is no…
Rapidly rotating stars are readily produced in binary systems. An accreting star in a binary system can be spun up by mass accretion and quickly approach the break-up limit. Mergers between two stars in a binary are expected to result in…
In recent years, a handful of ``dark" binaries have been discovered with a non-luminous compact object. Astrometry and radial velocity measurements of the bright companion allow us to measure the post-supernova orbital elements of such a…
A strongly relativistic binary pulsar has been recently discovered with the 64m Parkes telescope (Burgay et al. 2003). Here we use the measured properties of this binary (masses and orbital characteristics as well as age estimates), and we…
The Galactic Centre (GC) is a unique place to study the extreme dynamical processes occurring near a super-massive black hole (SMBH). Here we investigate the role of supernova (SN) explosions occurring in massive binary systems lying in a…