Neutron star retention and millisecond pulsar production in globular clusters |
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| Authors: | Melvyn B Davies & Brad M S Hansen |
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| Institution: | Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA,;CITA, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3H8, Canada |
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| Abstract: | We investigate the conditions by which neutron star retention in globular clusters is favoured. We find that neutron stars formed in massive binaries are far more likely to be retained. Such binaries are likely to then evolve into contact before encountering other stars, possibly producing a single neutron star after a common envelope phase. A large fraction of the single neutron stars in globular clusters are then likely to exchange into binaries containing moderate-mass main-sequence stars, replacing the lower-mass components of the original systems. These binaries will become intermediate-mass X-ray binaries (IMXBs), once the moderate-mass star evolves off the main sequence, as mass is transferred on to the neutron star, possibly spinning it up in the process. Such systems may be responsible for the population of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) that has been observed in globular clusters. Additionally, the period of mass-transfer (and thus X-ray visibility) in the vast majority of such systems will have occurred 5–10 Gyr ago, thus explaining the observed relative paucity of X-ray binaries today, given the MSP population. |
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| Keywords: | stars: evolution stars: neutron pulsars: general globular clusters: general |
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