Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 1312.1823

The nature of the Island and Banana States in Atoll sources and a Unified Model for Low Mass X-ray Binaries

M. J. Church·A. Gibiec·M. Balucinska-Church
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We propose an explanation of the Island and Banana states and the relation between Atoll and Z-track sources, constituting a unified model for Low Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXB). We find a dramatic transition at a luminosity of 1 - 2.10^{37} erg/s above which the high energy cut-off E_CO of the Comptonized emission in all sources is low at a few keV. There is thermal equilibrium between the neutron star at ~2 keV and the Comptonizing accretion disk corona (ADC) causing the low E_CO in the Banana state of Atolls and all states of the Z-track sources. Below this luminosity, E_CO increases towards 100 keV causing the hardness of the island state. Thermal equilibrium is lost, the ADC becoming much hotter than the neutron star via an additional coronal heating mechanism. This suggests a unified model of LMXB: the Banana state is a basic state with the mass accretion rate Mdot increasing, corresponding to the Normal Branch of Z-track sources. The Island state has high ADC temperature, this state not existing in the Z-track sources with luminosities much greater than the critical value. The Z-track sources have an additional flaring branch consistent with unstable nuclear burning on the neutron star at high Mdot. This burning regime does not exist at low Mdot so this branch is not seen in Atolls (except GX Atolls). The Horizontal Branch in Z-track sources has a strong increase in radiation pressure disrupting the inner disk and launching relativistic jets.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph.HE

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

M. J. Church, A. Gibiec, M. Balucinska-Church. 2013-12-06. The nature of the Island and Banana States in Atoll sources and a Unified Model for Low Mass X-ray Binaries. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras%2Fstt2364

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

IceCube neutrino point-source searches in the direction of the KM3NeT ultra-high-energy event

While still under construction, the KM3NeT Astroparticle Research with Cosmics in the Abyss (ARCA) detector recorded a $\sim$200 PeV neutrino on February 13th, 2023. This event is the highest-energy neutrino reported. IceCube, a cubic kilometer neutrino detector located at the geographic South Pole, has previously detected neutrinos up to approximately 10 PeV. We search for high-energy neutrinos from the location of the KM3NeT event using 15 years of IceCube data and considering three temporal hypotheses: steady or flaring in time coincidence, or at an arbitrary time. We find no evidence for neutrino emission for any of the studies performed. Correspondingly, we set upper limits on the neutrino flux from a point source in the direction of KM3-230213A. We compare these limits to KM3NeT's estimated flux and show that an astrophysical explanation of this event is strongly constrained for a variety of spectral assumptions for a steady or transient point source with the flux inferred from the single KM3NeT ultra-high-energy event assuming a spectral index of 2.0.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Evidence for the binary nature of the long-period radio transient ASKAP/DART J1832-0911

Long-period transients are a class of periodic pulsed radio source repeating on the minute to hour timescale. Recently, an increasing number of them are being identified as binary systems, specifically white dwarfs with low-mass main-sequence companions. In this work we analyse the most luminous long-period transient discovered to date, ASKAP/DART J1832-0911, with two years of radio data, and propose that it, too, may be a white dwarf system, although in a far more compact orbit than the aforementioned. The pulses are composed of quasi-periodic components which evolve in a systematic way over days and months. The source is highly linearly or elliptically polarised and its brightness enabled very high signal-to-noise measurement of the time-resolved Faraday rotation measure, which was found to vary across pulse phase. The linear polarisation position angle, circular polarised fraction, and spectral index also varied systematically in ways not typical of pulsars and magnetars. We show that an ultra-compact asynchronous polar explains much of the phenomenology of ASKAP/DART J1832-0911, in particular the evolution of the pulse morphology, rotation measure variation, and periodic X-ray emission, although we cannot conclusively prove a binary nature. However, our model makes testable predictions.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Nonbirefringent model of orthogonal polarization modes in radio pulsars - New view on S swing and mode structure in pulsar beam

Two orthogonal polarization modes observed in radio pulsar signals have long been attributed to proper modes of wave oscillation in strongly magnetized plasma. Yet it has been shown recently that they show up readily for extended emission regions that produce incoherently-superposed polarization signal. In this paper we present a two-dimensional polarization model based on incoherent superposition of radio signals. The model involves a single proper mode, say the O mode, but leads to the appearance of two orthogonal polarization tracks and naturally produces the triple form of polarization mode segregation in averaged profiles (central mode flanked on boths sides by another mode), as well as the displacement of modes in latitude, previously inferred from beam mapping. In the case of conal emission regions, the modelled polarization tends to mimic general polarization properties of the rotating vector model (RVM). However, the reason for this is the symmetry of the emission region - not the usual projection of dipolar magnetic azimuths. Thus the emerging RVM parameters reveal geometry of the emission region, not of the dipolar magnetic field. The results strongly support the vital role of nonbirefringent modal effects in radio pulsar profiles. Two proper modes may not be needed to explain observations of two orthogonal polarization tracks.

astro-ph.HE↗