A search for X-ray binary stars in their quiescent phase.
Abstract
Fourteen early-type stars representative of systems which may be harboring a neutron star companion and are thus potential progenitors of massive X-ray binaries have been examined for X-ray emission with the HEAO A-1 experiment. Limits on the 0.5-20 keV luminosity for these objects lie in the range 10 to the 31-33 erg/sec. In several cases, the hypothesis of a collapsed companion, in combination with the X-ray limit, places a serious constraint on the mass-loss rate of the primary star. In one instance, an X-ray source was discovered coincident with a candidate star, although the luminosity of 5 x 10 to the 31 is consistent with that expected from a single star of the same spectral type. The prospects for directly observing the quiescent phase of a binary X-ray source with the Einstein Observatory are discussed in the context of these results.
- Publication:
-
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
- Pub Date:
- October 1980
- DOI:
- 10.1086/130731
- Bibcode:
- 1980PASP...92..691H
- Keywords:
-
- Binary Stars;
- Early Stars;
- Neutron Stars;
- Stellar Spectra;
- Stellar Winds;
- X Ray Sources;
- Heao 1;
- Hot Stars;
- Stellar Luminosity;
- Supermassive Stars;
- X Ray Binaries;
- Astronomy