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Title: High mass X-ray binaries: Beacons in a stormy universe
Abstract The discovery of gravity waves from the mergers of black hole binaries has focused the astronomical community on the high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) as the potential progenitors of close pairs of compact stars. This symposium gathered experts in observational and theoretical work for a very timely review of our understanding of the processes that drive the X-ray luminosity of the diverse kinds of binaries and what evolutionary stages are revealed in the observed cases. Here I offer a condensed summary of some of the results about massive star properties, the observational categories of HMXBs, their accretion processes, their numbers in the Milky Way and other galaxies, and how they may be related to the compact binaries that merge in a burst of gravity waves.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1715788
PAR ID:
10194014
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Volume:
14
Issue:
S346
ISSN:
1743-9213
Page Range / eLocation ID:
489 to 499
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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