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arXiv · 1710.09128

Correlations between the frequencies of twin kHz QPOs and spins of neutron stars in LMXBs

Abstract

We investigate the correlation between the frequencies of the twin kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations (kHz QPOs) and the neutron star (NS) spins in low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), based on the data sets of 12 sources with simultaneously detected twin kHz QPOs and NS spins, and find that the histogram of the ratio between the frequency difference of twin kHz QPOs (Δν = ν2 - ν1) and NS spin νs shows a non-uniform distribution with a gap at Δν/νs ~ 0.65. We try to classify the 12 sources into two categories according to this gap: (I) The slow rotators with <νs> ~ 311 Hz, XTE J1807.4-294, 4U 1915-05, IGR J17191-2821, 4U 1702-43, 4U 1728-34 and 4U 0614+09 follow a relation Δν/νs > 0.65; (II) The fast rotators with <νs> ~ 546 Hz, SAX J1808.4-3658, KS 1731-260, Aql X-1, 4U 1636-53, SAX J1750.8-2900 and 4U 1608-52 satisfy the relation Δν/νs < 0.65. However, the linear fittings of Δν versus νs relations of group (I) and (II) are unsatisfactory to ensure any certain correlations. We suggest that this phenomenon may arise from the fact that most measured kHz QPOs and spins satisfy the conditions of 1.1 νs < ν2 < 1300Hz and Δν decreasing with ν2. Apparently, the diversified distribution of Δν/νs refutes the simple beat-frequency model, and the statistical correlations between the twin kHz QPOs and NS spins may arise from the magnetosphere-disk boundary environments, e.g., co-rotation radius and NS radius, that modulate the occurrences of X-ray signals. Furthermore, we also find that the distribution of the ratio of ν2 to ν1 clusters around the value of <ν2/ν1> ~ 3 : 2, which shows no obvious correlation with NS spins.

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De-Hua Wang, Cheng-Min Zhang, Jin-Lu Qu, Yi-Yan Yang. 2017-10-25. Correlations between the frequencies of twin kHz QPOs and spins of neutron stars in LMXBs. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras%2Fstx2578

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