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Thermal Timescale Mass Transfer Rates in Intermediate-Mass X-ray Binaries
Thermal timescale mass transfer generally occurs in close binaries where the
donor star is more massive than the accreting star. The mass transfer rates are
usually estimated in terms of the Kelvin-Helmholtz timescale of the donor star.
But recent investigations indicate that this method may overestimate the real
mass transfer rates in accreting white dwarf or neutron star binary systems. We
have systematically investigated the thermal-timescale mass transfer processes
in intermediate-mass X-ray binaries, by calculating binary evolution sequences
with various initial donor masses and orbital periods. From the calculated
results we find that on average the mass transfer rates are lower than
traditional estimates by a factor of .Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, and 2 tables, accepted for publication in A&
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