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On the Population of Wind-Accreting Neutron Stars in the Galaxy

E. Pfahl·S. Rappaport·Ph. Podsiadlowski
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Abstract

We explore the possibility that neutron stars accreting from the winds of main-sequence stellar companions account for a significant fraction of low-luminosity, hard X-ray sources (L_X <~ 10^35 ergs/s; 1-10 keV) in the Galaxy. This work was motivated by recent Chandra observations of the Galactic center by Wang et al. (2002). Our calculations indicate that many of the discrete X-ray sources detected in this survey may be wind-accreting neutron stars, and that many more may be discovered with deeper X-ray observations. We propose that an infrared observing campaign be undertaken to search for the stellar counterparts of these X-ray sources.

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E. Pfahl, S. Rappaport, Ph. Podsiadlowski. 2002-03-17. On the Population of Wind-Accreting Neutron Stars in the Galaxy. https://doi.org/10.1086/341197

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