Could Black Hole X-Ray Binaries Be Detected in Globular Clusters?

Abstract

We consider the implications of the presence of an ~1 stellar-mass black hole (BH) at the center of a dense globular cluster. We show that BH X-ray binaries formed through exchange interactions are likely to have extremely low duty cycles (under about 10-3), consistent with the absence of BH X-ray transients in Galactic globular clusters. In contrast, we find that BH X-ray binaries formed through tidal capture would be persistent, bright X-ray sources. Given the absence of any such source and the very high interaction rates, we conclude that tidal capture of a main-sequence star by a BH most likely leads to the complete disruption of the star.