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On the maximum accretion luminosity of magnetized neutron stars: connecting X-ray pulsars and ultraluminous X-ray sources

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arxiv 1506.03600 v3 pith:QU7U4XMU submitted 2015-06-11 astro-ph.HE astro-ph.GA

On the maximum accretion luminosity of magnetized neutron stars: connecting X-ray pulsars and ultraluminous X-ray sources

classification astro-ph.HE astro-ph.GA
keywords luminosityx-rayaccretionneutronfieldfunctiongtrsimluminosities
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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We study properties of luminous X-ray pulsars using a simplified model of the accretion column. The maximal possible luminosity is calculated as a function of the neutron star (NS) magnetic field and spin period. It is shown that the luminosity can reach values of the order of $10^{40}\,{\rm erg/s}$ for the magnetar-like magnetic field ($B\gtrsim 10^{14}\,{\rm G}$) and long spin periods ($P\gtrsim 1.5\,{\rm s}$). The relative narrowness of an area of feasible NS parameters which are able to provide higher luminosities leads to the conclusion that $L\simeq 10^{40}\,\,{\rm erg/s}$ is a good estimate for the limiting accretion luminosity of a NS. Because this luminosity coincides with the cut-off observed in the high mass X-ray binaries luminosity function which otherwise does not show any features at lower luminosities, we can conclude that a substantial part of ultra-luminous X-ray sources are accreting neutron stars in binary systems.

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Cited by 1 Pith paper

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Magnetospheric flows in X-ray pulsars II: Heating, cooling and ionization degree at sub-critical accretion

    astro-ph.HE 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0

    Sub-critical magnetospheric accretion flows in X-ray pulsars cool to tens of eV near the surface and become partially ionized, contrary to the standard fully-ionized assumption.