Related papers: On Pulsar-Driven Mass Ejection in Low-Mass X-ray B…
Low-mass black hole X-ray Binaries (LMXBs) undergo outbursts, during which their brightness increases greatly for timescales of months. The X-ray accretion and radio jet properties change dramatically throughout an outburst in a broadly…
The large majority of neutron stars (NSs) in low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) have never shown detectable pulsations despite several decades of intense monitoring. The reason for this remains an unsolved problem that hampers our ability to…
Black hole (BH) spins in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) cover a range of values that can be explained by accretion after BH birth. In contrast, the three BH spin measurements in high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) show only values near the…
X-ray heating of the photosphere of an accretion disk is a possible mechanism to produce strong, broad UV emission lines in low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). However, detailed photoionization calculations show that this mechanism fails to…
Recurring outbursts associated with matter flowing onto compact stellar remnants (black-holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs) in close binary systems, provide strong test beds for constraining the poorly understood accretion process. The…
We consider combined rotational, magnetic, and thermal evolution of the neutron star during the accretion phase in a binary system. A rapid accretion-driven decay of the magnetic field decreases substantially the efficiency of angular…
Relativistic discrete ejecta launched by black hole X-ray binaries (BH XRBs) can be observed to propagate up to parsec-scales from the central object. Observing the final deceleration phase of these jets is crucial to estimate their…
We present numerical simulations of discrete relativistic ejecta from an X-ray binary (XRB) with initial conditions directly informed by observations. XRBs have been observed to launch powerful discrete plasma ejecta during state…
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 study mass loss from the outer Lagrange point (L2) in binary stellar mergers and their luminous transients by means of radiative hydrodynamical simulations. Previously, we showed that for binary mass ratios 0.06 < q < 0.8, synchronous L2…
We studied the relation of accretion-jet power and disk luminosity, especially the jet efficiencies and disk radiative efficiencies for different accretion disks as well as black hole (BH) spin, in order to explore the origin of radio…
We have shown previously that many of the properties of persistent accretion-powered millisecond pulsars can be understood if their X-ray emitting areas are near their spin axes and move as the accretion rate and structure of the inner disk…
In outburst, neutron star X-ray binaries produce less powerful jets than black holes at a given X-ray luminosity. This has made them more difficult to study as they fade towards quiescence. To explore whether neutron stars power jets at low…
In the last 20 years our understanding of the millisecond pulsar (MSP) population changed dramatically. Thanks to RXTE, we discovered that neutron stars in LMXBs spins at 200-750 Hz frequencies, and indirectly confirmed the recycling…
In this paper we survey the theory of wind accretion in high mass X-ray binaries hosting a magnetic neutron star and a supergiant companion. We concentrate on the different types of interaction between the inflowing wind matter and the…
The measured spin-down rates in quiescence of the transient accreting millisecond pulsars IGR J00291+5934, XTE J1751-305, SAX J1808.4-3658, and Swift J1756.9-2508 have been used to estimate the magnetic moments of these objects assuming…
We examine a number of evolutionary scenarios for the recently discovered class of accretion-powered millisecond X-ray pulsars in ultracompact binaries, including XTE J0929-314 and XTE J1751-305, with orbital periods of 43.6 and 42.4…
In this paper we investigate the relation between the maximal luminosity of X-ray outburst and the orbital period in transient low mass X-ray binaries (or soft X-ray transients) observed by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) in the past…
The precise origins of the millisecond radio pulsars, discovered in the early 1980s, remain uncertain until this day. They plausibly evolve from accreting low magnetic-field neutron stars in X-ray binary systems. If so, these stars should…
Three high-mass X-ray binaries have been discovered recently exhibiting enormous spinup rates. Conventional accretion theory predicts extremely high surface dipolar magnetic fields that we believe are unphysical. Instead, we propose quite…