Open AccessA possible detection mechanism for pre‐low‐mass X‐ray binaries
Author(s) -
Bleach James N.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05344.x
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , neutron star , x ray binary , x ray burster , astronomy , luminosity , accretion (finance) , low mass , compact star , orbital period , stellar evolution , stellar mass loss , stars , galaxy
This work presents a possible detection mechanism for close, detached, neutron star–red dwarf binaries, which are expected to be the evolutionary precursors of low‐mass X‐ray binaries (LMXBs). Although this pre‐low‐mass X‐ray binary (pre‐LMXB) phase of evolution is predicted theoretically, as yet no such systems have been identified observationally. The calculations presented here suggest that the X‐ray luminosity of neutron star wind accretion in a pre‐LMXB system can be expected to exceed the intrinsic X‐ray luminosity of the red dwarf secondary star. Furthermore, the temperature of the radiation emitted from the neutron star wind accretion process is expected, within the confines of a reasonable set of conditions, to lie within the detection range of X‐ray satellites. Sources with X‐ray luminosities greater than that expected for a red dwarf star, but the positions of which coincide with that of a red dwarf star, are then candidate pre‐LMXB systems. These candidate systems should be surveyed for the radial velocity shifts that would occur as a result of the orbital motion of a red dwarf star within a close binary system containing a high‐mass compact object.