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Neutron stars in globular clusters: Formation and observational manifestations

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Abstract

Population synthesis is used to model the number of neutron stars in globular clusters that are observed as low-mass X-ray sources and millisecond radio pulsars. The dynamical interactions between binary and single stars in a cluster are assumed to take place only with a continuously replenished “background” of single stars whose properties keep track of the variations in parameters of the cluster as a whole and the evolution of single stars. We use the hypothesis that the neutron stars forming in binary systems from components with initial masses of ∼8–12 M ⊙ during the collapse of degenerate O-Ne-Mg cores through electron captures do not acquire a high space velocity. The remaining neutron stars (from single stars with masses >8 M ⊙ or from binary components with masses >12 M ⊙) are assumed to be born with high space velocities. According to this hypothesis, a sizeable fraction of the forming neutron stars remain in globular clusters (about 1000 stars in a cluster with a mass of 5 × 105 M ⊙). The number of millisecond radio pulsars forming in such a cluster in the case of accretion-driven spinup in binary systems is found to be ∼10, in agreement with observations. Our modeling also reproduces the observed shape of the X-ray luminosity function for accreting neutron stars in binary systems with normal and degenerate components and the distribution of spin periods for millisecond pulsars.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Universitetskii pr. 13, Moscow, 119992, Russia

    A. G. Kuranov & K. A. Postnov

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  1. A. G. Kuranov
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  2. K. A. Postnov
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Original Russian Text © A.G. Kuranov, K.A. Postnov, 2006, published in Pis’ma v Astronomicheskiĭ Zhurnal, 2006, Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 438–451.

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Kuranov, A.G., Postnov, K.A. Neutron stars in globular clusters: Formation and observational manifestations. Astron. Lett. 32, 393–405 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1134/S106377370606003X

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S106377370606003X

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