4 research outputs found
Neutron Stars and Black Holes in X-ray Binaries
Galactic accretion driven stellar X-ray sources can be divided into groups in
different ways. An important division, which covers almost all known X-ray
binaries, can be made according to the mass of the donor star: high-mass X-ray
binaries and low-mass X-ray binaries. Another distinction (partially
overlapping with the previous one) can be made on the basis of the nature of
the accreting object: a strongly magnetized neutron star, a neutron star with a
weak magnetic field, or a black hole. In this review I describe the properties
of these different types of X-ray binaries, and discuss the mass determinations
which are the basis for distinguishing accreting neutron stars from black
holes.Comment: 58 pages, 15 figures. To be published in 'The Many Faces of Neutron
Stars', R. Buccheri, J. van Paradijs, M.A. Alpar (Eds), Kluwer Academic
Publisher