Related papers: Low-Mass X-ray Binaries in Globular Clusters: Puzz…
Dusty primordial disks surrounding young low-mass stars are revealing tracers of stellar and planetary formation. The evolution and lifetime of these disks define the boundary conditions of the mechanisms of planet formation. Stellar…
These are exciting times for binary black hole (BBH) research. LIGO and Virgo detections are progressively drawing a spectacular fresco of BBH masses, spins and merger rates. In this review, we discuss the main formation channels of BBHs…
Be/X-ray binaries comprise roughly two-thirds of the high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), which is a class of X-ray binaries that results from the high mass of the companion or donor star (> 10 solar masses). Currently the formation and…
The high stellar densities in the cores of globular clusters cause significant stellar interactions. These stellar interactions can produce close binary mass-transferring systems involving compact objects and their progeny, such as X-ray…
In this review I discuss the characteristics and the formation of all classes of millisecond pulsars (MSPs). The main focus is on the stellar astrophysics of X-ray binaries leading to the production of fully recycled MSPs with white dwarf…
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…
The formation of ultra-compact X-ray binaries (UCXBs) has not been well understood. Previous works show that ultra-short orbital periods ($<1$ hr) may be reached through mass transfer driven by magnetic braking in normal…
We study a new channel for binary system formation involving stars and stellar-mass primordial black holes (PBHs) embedded in dark matter (DM) minihalos. In this scenario, binaries form when a star passes through the DM minihalo surrounding…
We discuss the high lithium abundances in the secondary stars of X-ray binaries. We show that no lithium production in these stars is necessary, and that the abundances can be explained simply due to the tidally locked rotation of the…
Ultracompact X-ray binaries (UCXBs) are thought to have relatively simple binary evolution post-contact, leading to clear predictions of their luminosity function. We test these predictions by studying the long-term behavior of known UCXBs…
In this Letter we propose a formation channel for low-mass X-ray binaries with black hole accretors and non-degenerate donors via grazing tidal encounters with subgiants. We estimate that in a typically dense globular cluster with the core…
Using results of Chandra observations of old stellar systems in eleven nearby galaxies of various morphological types and the census of LMXBs in the Milky Way, we study the population of low mass X-ray binaries and their relation to the…
Blue stragglers in globular clusters are abnormally massive stars that should have evolved off the stellar main sequence long ago. There are two known processes that can create these objects: direct stellar collisions and binary evolution.…
We develop analytical tools and perform three-body simulations to investigate the orbital evolution and dynamical stability of binary planets within star clusters. Our analytical results show that the orbital stability of a planetary-mass…
In this review I first summarize why binaries are key objects in the study of stellar populations, key objects to understand the evolution of star clusters, key objects to understand galaxies and thus the universe. I then focus on 4…
The author presented the results on the evolution of NS LMXBs and the formation of UCXBs(Ma & Li 2009 for details), and proposed a scenario for the formation of UCXBs from L/IMXBs with the aid of a CB disk in this work.
We consider the possible existence of a common channel of evolution of binary systems, which results in a gamma-ray burst during the formation of a black hole or the birth of a magnetar during the formation of a neutron star. We assume that…
In high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), an accreting compact object orbits a high mass star which loses mass through a dense and inhomogeneous wind. Using the compact object as an X-ray backlight, the time variability of the absorbing column…
A neutron star (NS) accreting matter from a companion star in a low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) system can spin up to become a millisecond pulsar (MSP). Properties of many such MSP systems are known, which is excellent for probing fundamental…
Star clusters are the building blocks of galaxies. They are composed of stars of nearly equal age and chemical composition, allowing us to use them as chronometers and as testbeds for gauging stellar evolution. It has become clear recently…