TY - JOUR
T1 - On the recurrence times of neutron star X-ray binary transients and the nature of the Galactic Centre quiescent X-ray binaries
AU - Maccarone, Thomas J.
AU - Degenaar, Nathalie
AU - Tetarenko, Bailey E.
AU - Heinke, Craig O.
AU - Wijnands, Rudy
AU - Sivakoff, Gregory R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s).
PY - 2022/5/1
Y1 - 2022/5/1
N2 - The presence of some X-ray sources in the Galactic Centre region which show variability, but do not show outbursts in over a decade of monitoring has been used to argue for the presence of a large population of stellar mass black holes in this region. A core element of the arguments that these objects are accreting black holes is the claim that neutron stars (NSs) in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) do not have long transient recurrence times. We demonstrate in this paper that about half of the known transient LMXBs with clear signatures for NS primaries have recurrence times in excess of a decade for outbursts at the sensitivity of MAXI. We furthermore show that, in order to reconcile the expected total population of NS LMXBs with the observed one and with the millisecond radio pulsar (MSRP) population of the Galaxy, systems with recurrence times well in excess of a century for outbursts detectable by instruments like MAXI must be the dominant population of NS LMXBs, and that few of these systems have yet been discovered.
AB - The presence of some X-ray sources in the Galactic Centre region which show variability, but do not show outbursts in over a decade of monitoring has been used to argue for the presence of a large population of stellar mass black holes in this region. A core element of the arguments that these objects are accreting black holes is the claim that neutron stars (NSs) in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) do not have long transient recurrence times. We demonstrate in this paper that about half of the known transient LMXBs with clear signatures for NS primaries have recurrence times in excess of a decade for outbursts at the sensitivity of MAXI. We furthermore show that, in order to reconcile the expected total population of NS LMXBs with the observed one and with the millisecond radio pulsar (MSRP) population of the Galaxy, systems with recurrence times well in excess of a century for outbursts detectable by instruments like MAXI must be the dominant population of NS LMXBs, and that few of these systems have yet been discovered.
KW - X-rays: binaries
KW - accretion, accretion discs
KW - stars: neutron
KW - stars:binaries:close
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128357337&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stac506
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stac506
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85128357337
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 512
SP - 2365
EP - 2370
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
IS - 2
ER -