Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992aas...181.7309t&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 181st AAS Meeting, #73.09; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 24, p.1237
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
4
Scientific paper
Roughly 10% of all low mass X-ray binaries (LMXB's, neutron star - low mass sequence close binaries) are found in Galactic globular clusters (GC's) implying an enhancement per unit mass of roughly three orders of magnitude of these objects inside GC's compared with the field. Fabian, Pringle and Rees (1975) suggested that these lcose binary systems may be formed via tidal capture in the dense cluster cores. Similar arguments are likely to apply to nova systems which are cataclysmic variables (CV's) consisting of a close binary white dwarf - low mass main sequence star. Supporting arguments include the discovery over the past century of two novae in Galactic GC's, and the existence of low luminosity X-ray sources in GC's (Hertz and Grindlay 1983). In addition, surveys for novae in M31 indicate that the specfic density of novae in its bulge is an order of magnitude higher than its disk and it has been argued by Ciardullo et al. (1987) that novae in the bulge of M31 have been spawned inside GC's and subsequently ejected into the field. We present the results of a search (during 1988 and 1989) of over 200 M31 GC's using a fibre multi-object spectrograph to detect Hα emission, a signature of a potential nova eruptions. No eruptions were detected over an effective survey time of one year for the entire known M31 GC system. Although the lower mass of white dwarfs compared with neutron stars implies their effective capture cross section is smaller, we argue that since novae occur much more frequently on high mass white dwarfs this survey provides a sensitive test to the number of high mass CV's in GC's and their enhancement is unlikely to be as high as LMXB's.
Crotts Arlin
Shafter Allen
Tomaney Austin
No associations
LandOfFree
A Search for Novae in the M31 Globular Cluster System does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with A Search for Novae in the M31 Globular Cluster System, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A Search for Novae in the M31 Globular Cluster System will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1111394