Issue |
A&A
Volume 694, February 2025
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | L9 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Letters to the Editor | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202453274 | |
Published online | 06 February 2025 |
Letter to the Editor
Populations of neutron star ultraluminous X-ray sources
Mind your bs and Bs
1
Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), Edifici RDIT, Campus UPC, 08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona), Spain
2
Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC), Campus UAB, Carrer de Magrans, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
3
Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway
4
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via Frascati 33, I-00078 Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
⋆ Corresponding author; kovlakas@ice.csic.es
Received:
3
December
2024
Accepted:
15
January
2025
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) with neutron star (NS) accretors pose a challenge to traditional accretion models, sparking a debate regarding the role of geometrical beaming and strong magnetic fields (B). The reduction of the Thomson cross-section in the presence of strong B leads to a modification of the Eddington limit; therefore, it is expected to affect significantly the observational appearance of NS-ULXs. We investigate the role of this modification using population synthesis models and explore its effects on the X-ray luminosity functions, spin-up rates, and outflow energetics of the observed NS-ULXs. Our results show that the new prescription allows NS-ULXs to achieve super-Eddington luminosities with a milder beaming compared to before, improving the agreement with observations. In addition, it broadens the range of spin-up rates, allowing for more diverse conditions in NS-ULXs in terms of accretion rates and magnetic fields. More importantly, the reduced beaming increases the likelihood of observing the NS-ULXs within wind-powered nebulae, such as NGC 5907 ULX-1. Our findings highlight the need to take B effects into account, independently of the usual approach based on geometrical beaming or strong B. Finally, we call for magnetospheric accretion prescriptions that can be integrated in population synthesis codes.
Key words: accretion, accretion disks / magnetic fields / stars: black holes / stars: evolution / stars: neutron / X-rays: binaries
© The Authors 2025
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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