Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011head...12.1506p&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #12, #15.06
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
High Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXB) are formed in copious numbers in starburst galaxies. Is there any relationship between HMXBs and young star clusters? Do HMXBs form preferentially in star clusters? What can star clusters tell us about nearby HMXBs, even if they are not directly related?
We have studied a variety of nearby starburst galaxies -- including the Antennae, NGC 4449 (a star-bursting dwarf) and NGC 922 (a collisional ring galaxy). In all these systems, we find evidence that a large fraction of (but not all) HMXBs are spatially coincident with (or very close to) a star cluster. Approximately 50 percent of the clusters hosting bright HMXBs are extremely young -- less than 6 Myr. Stellar evolutionary models predict that all stars with initial masses higher than ≈ 30 M&sun; will have completed their main-sequence lifetime after 6 Myr. While still somewhat uncertain, models predict that stars this massive will end their lives as black
holes. We therefore conclude that HMXBs coincident with these very young clusters are most likely black hole binaries. We also find evidence for a population of young (30-50 Myr) and intermediate age X-ray sources (100-300 Myr) that are associated with older clusters. The implications of these results for models of HMXB formation and evolution will be briefly discussed.
Chandar Rupali
Jackson Floyd
Prestwich Andrea H.
Rangelov Blagoy
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