Wind Roche lobe overflow in high-mass X-ray binaries

Mellah, I. El; Sundqvist, J. O.; Keppens, Rony

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201834543

Cited by 61 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…If accretion happens through Roche-lobe overflow, the orbital period of the system is at least 0.8-2.1 years, consistent with the lower limit of one year from X-ray timing [38]. If the orbit is eccentric or the neutron star is accreting from the stellar wind or via the "wind-Roche lobe overflow" mechanism proposed by El Mellah et al [61], in which a slow-moving wind from the donor star is beamed towards the accretor, the orbital period could be even longer. The complex structure of the Balmer lines in both the X-shooter spectrum [57] and spectra obtained shortly after the 2010 outburst [26] both show evidence of a narrow (full-width at half-maximum of ∼10 km s −1 ) component that is consistent with a RSG wind.…”

Section: The Circumstellar Environment and Donor Starsupporting

confidence: 78%

From SN 2010da to NGC 300 ULX-1: Ten Years of Observations of an Unusual High Mass X-Ray Binary in NGC 300

et al. 2020

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In 2010 May, an intermediate luminosity optical transient was discovered in the nearby galaxy NGC 300 by a South African amateur astronomer. In the decade since its discovery, multi-wavelength observations of the misnamed "SN 2010da" have continually re-shaped our understanding of this high mass X-ray binary system. In this review, we present an overview of the multi-wavelength observations and attempts to understand the 2010 transient event and, later, the re-classification of this system as NGC 300 ULX-1: a red supergiant + neutron star ultraluminous X-ray source.On 2010 May 24, the amateur astronomer L. A. G. Monard of Pretoria, South Africa, reported the discovery of an optical transient in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 300, shown in Figure 1 [1]. The event was given the supernova (SN) designation SN 2010da. The apparent V-band magnitude from the discovery images (16.0±0.2 mag), however, immediately presented a contradiction: at the distance of the host galaxy (2 Mpc [2]), the implied absolute magnitude (M V ∼ −10.5 at maximum; [3]) was too low to be consistent with a true SN explosion. Follow-up spectroscopy confirmed that the transient event was not a genuine SN, and instead resembled a luminous blue variable (LBV)-like outburst from a dust-enshrouded massive star [4,5]. Multi-color imaging of the outburst was obtained with the SMARTS 1.3m telescope at Cerro Tololo ∼2 days after the initial discovery [6] and ∼3 weeks post-outburst [7]. SN 2010da thus joined the heterogeneous group of objects known as "supernova impostors," which are frequently interpreted as massive stars experiencing non-terminal eruptions or outbursts [5,6]. Additional spectroscopy from the SOAR 4.1m telescope spanned 400-860 nm [5] showed similarity to the SN impostor SN 1997bs [10]. The blue continuum emission of SN 2010da shortly after outburst was dominated by strong Hα emission, with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of ∼1000 km s −1 and no evidence of a P Cygni profile, along with other narrow Balmer lines and a possible detection of weak He II λ4686 [5]. These results stood in contrast to those obtained with near-simultaneous GMOS on Gemini-South by Chornock and Berger [4], which observed an Hα FWHM of ∼660 km s −1 and higher-order Balmer lines with clear P-Cygni profiles. These spectral properties led Chornock and Berger [4] to speculate that the SN 2010da event originated in "an LBV-like outburst of a massive star." arXiv:2002.04113v1 [astro-ph.HE]

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Section: The Circumstellar Environment and Donor Starsupporting

confidence: 78%

From SN 2010da to NGC 300 ULX-1: Ten Years of Observations of an Unusual High Mass X-Ray Binary in NGC 300

et al. 2020

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“…It is therefore unlikely that the B[e] phenomenon in ULXs originate from an sgB[e] mass donor star since in RLOF it should not be rotating at a significant enough fraction of their break-up velocity to produce an enhanced equatorial outflow. However, we note that stellar "wind RLOF" has recently been proposed by El Mellah, Sundqvist, & Keppens (2019) to provide enough mass to feed ULX compact objects at super-Eddington rates and thus do not entirely rule out the possibility of scenario 1. We now consider scenario 2, where the B[e] phenomenon arises from a dense outflow from the outer parts of the ULX accretion disk.…”

Section: Red Ulxs and The B[e] Phenomenonmentioning

confidence: 66%

Uncovering Red and Dusty Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources with Spitzer

Lau

Heida

Walton

et al. 2019

ApJ

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We present a mid-infrared (IR) sample study of nearby ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) using multi-epoch observations with the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Spitzer /IRAC observations taken after 2014 were obtained as part of the Spitzer Infrared Intensive Transients Survey (SPIRITS). Our sample includes 96 ULXs located within 10 Mpc. Of the 96 ULXs, 12 have candidate counterparts consistent with absolute mid-IR magnitudes of supergiants, and 16 counterparts exceeded the mid-IR brightness of single supergiants and are thus more consistent with star clusters or non-ULX background active galactic nuclei (AGN). The supergiant candidate counterparts exhibit a bi-modal color distribution in a Spitzer/IRAC color-magnitude diagram, where "red' and "blue" ULXs fall in IRAC colors [3.6] − [4.5] ∼ 0.7 and [3.6] − [4.5] ∼ 0.0, respectively. The mid-IR colors and absolute magnitudes of 4 "red" and 5 "blue" ULXs are consistent with that of supergiant B[e] (sgB[e]) and red supergiant (RSG) stars, respectively. While "blue", RSG-like mid-IR ULX counterparts likely host RSG mass donors, we propose the "red" counterparts are ULXs exhibiting the "B[e] phenomenon" rather than hosts of sgB[e] mass donors. We show that the mid-IR excess from the "red" ULXs is likely due to thermal emission from circumstellar or circumbinary dust. Using dust as a probe for total mass, we estimate mass-loss rates ofṀ ∼ 1 × 10 −4 M yr −1 in dust-forming outflows of red ULXs. Based on the transient mid-IR behavior and its relatively flat spectral index, α = −0.19±0.1, we suggest that the mid-IR emission from Holmberg IX X-1 originates from a variable jet.

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“…Very recently, wind Roche-lobe overflow (WRLOF, first introduced by has been suggested as a possible mass transfer mechanism for ULXs (El Mellah et al 2019a;Heida et al 2019a,b). In this scenario, WRLOF can remain stable for large mass ratios while still leading, for relatively sufficient slow winds, to the formation of a wind-captured disk around the accretor, even when the donor does not fill its Roche lobe (RL, El Mellah et al 2019b). El Mellah et al (2019a find that the mass-transfer rate can be boosted much higher than normal Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton (BHL) wind accretion (see their Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the present work, we applied an up-to-date EPS code to investigate the population of NS ULXs in the case of the WRLOF scenario. In the EPS code, we implemented the mass transfer efficiencies µ computed by El Mellah et al (2019a). We examined several parameters, such as metallicity and the exponent β of the velocity law, which may affect the stellar wind and hence the formation and evolution of WRLOF NS ULXs significantly.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population synthesis on ultra-luminous X-ray sources with an accreting neutron star: Wind Roche-lobe overflow cases

Zuo

Song

Xue

2021

A&A

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Very recently, wind Roche-lobe overflow (WRLOF) has been suggested as a possible mass transfer mechanism for ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) and, to date, two neutron-star (NS) ULXs (i.e., NGC 7793 P13 and NGC 300 ULX-1) are remarkable and hard to understand in the current, usual RLOF picture. In this work, we test if the two sources could fit into the WRLOF paradigm. By using an evolutionary population synthesis method, we modeled the population of NS ULXs with (super)giant donors, taking the WRLOF accretion mode into account. We find that the population of wind-fed NS ULXs in the WRLOF mode is distinct in numbers and binary parameters from that in the traditional Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton mode, and it is strongly metallicity dependent. The number of NS ULXs with (super)giant donors can be enhanced greatly, by one or two orders of magnitude, depending on the metallicity adopted. Sources with massive (∼15−40 M⊙) (super)giant donors dominate wind-fed NS ULXs in the very low metallicities, while sources in near solar cases are dominated by a red supergiant with a lower mass M2 < 10 M⊙ instead. Moreover, the two NS ULXs can be well reproduced in the WRLOF paradigm, which significantly enriches our understanding of the nature of ULXs and the population. We also present the current distributions of binary parameters of wind-fed NS ULXs, which may be further testified by future high-resolution optical and X-ray observations of these populations.

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Wind Roche lobe overflow in high-mass X-ray binaries

Cited by 61 publications

References 62 publications

From SN 2010da to NGC 300 ULX-1: Ten Years of Observations of an Unusual High Mass X-Ray Binary in NGC 300

From SN 2010da to NGC 300 ULX-1: Ten Years of Observations of an Unusual High Mass X-Ray Binary in NGC 300

Uncovering Red and Dusty Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources with Spitzer

Population synthesis on ultra-luminous X-ray sources with an accreting neutron star: Wind Roche-lobe overflow cases

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