Related papers: Lens Flare: Magnified X-Ray Binaries as Passive Be…
Low Mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) are binary systems where one of the components is either a black hole or a neutron star and the other is a less massive star. It is challenging to unambiguously determine whether a LMXB hosts a black hole or…
Binary stars have long been considered to play a crucial role in globular cluster evolution, and offer the advantages of studying systems at the same, well-determined distances. However, early search attempts were consistently thwarted by…
Low-mass X-ray binaries hosting weakly magnetized neutron stars (NS-LMXBs) are among the brightest sources in the X-ray sky. Since 2021, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) has provided new measurements of the X-ray polarization…
We explore a unique electromagnetic signature of stellar-mass compact-object binaries long before they are detectable in gravitational waves. We show that gravitational lensing of light emitting components of a compact-object binary, by the…
Low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), which occur in old stellar populations, have velocities exceeding those of their parent distribution by at least 20 km/s. This makes them ideal probes for dark matter, in particular in dwarf spheroidals…
We identify and quantify the set of constraints that neutron star-normal star binaries must satisfy in order to become observable LMXBs. These constraints are related to (i) the thermal and hydrostatic equilibrium of the donors, (ii) the…
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…
We know from observations that globular clusters are very efficient catalysts in forming unusual short-period binary systems or their offspring, such as low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs; neutron stars accreting matter from low-mass stellar…
This is a call for amateur astronomers who have the equipment and experience for producing high quality photometry to contribute to a program of finding periods in the optical light curves of high mass X-ray binaries (HMXB). HMXBs are…
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…
In dense stellar systems, dynamical interactions between objects lead to frequent formation of exotic stellar objects, unusual binaries, and systems of higher multiplicity. They are especially important for the formation of low mass X-ray…
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…
X-ray binaries are binary star systems in which a compact object (a neutron star or a black hole) and a relatively normal star orbit a common centre of mass. Since the discovery of X-ray binaries with the first X-ray telescopes in the…
Despite considerable evidence verifying that millisecond pulsars are spun up through sustained accretion in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), it has proven surprisingly difficult to actually detect millisecond X-ray pulsars in LMXBs. There…
We have carried out an in-depth study of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) detected in the nearby lenticular galaxy NGC 3115, using the Megasecond Chandra X-Ray Visionary Project observation (total exposure time 1.1 Ms). In total we found 136…
This project examines the feasibility of using gravitational lensing to measure the mass of compact objects in eclipsing X-ray binary (XRB) systems. We investigate which kind of XRB would be most conducive for viewing the effect, by…
We have studied the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) in the nearby lenticular galaxy NGC 3115, using the Megasecond Chandra X-Ray Visionary Project Observation. With a total exposure time of ~1.1 Ms, we…
The vast majority of binaries containing a compact object and a regular star spend most of their time in a quiescent state where no strong interactions occur between components. Detection of these binaries is extremely challenging and only…
We analyze a flux-limited sample of persistent and bright (with 2-10 keV fluxes exceeding 1.4e-10 erg/s/cm2) low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) in our Galaxy. It is demonstrated that the majority of binary systems with X-ray luminosities below…
Binaries containing compact objects, if viewed close to edge on, can produce periodic brightening events under certain conditions on the masses, radii, and binary separation. Such flares are caused by one object gravitational lensing the…