Orbital period and outburst luminosity of transient low mass X-ray binaries

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the maximal luminosity of X-ray outburst and the orbital period in transient low mass X-ray binaries (or soft X-ray transients) observed by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) in the past decade. We find that the maximal luminosity (3-200 keV) in Eddington units generally increases with increasing orbital period, which does not show a luminosity saturation but in general agrees with theoretical prediction. The peak luminosities in ultra-compact binaries might be higher than those with an orbital period of 2-4 hr, but more data are needed to make this claim. We also find that there is no significant difference in the 3-200 keV peak outburst luminosity between neutron star (NS) systems and black hole (BH) systems with orbital periods above 4 hr; however, there might be a significant difference at smaller orbital periods where only NS systems are observed and radiatively inefficient accretion flow is expected to work at low luminosities for BH accreters. © 2010. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.