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Related Concept Videos

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 13, 2025

Visualizing Adhesion Formation in Cells by Means of Advanced Spinning Disk-Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy
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Retrograde Accretion Disks in High-Mass Be/X-ray Binaries.

D M Christodoulou1,2, S G T Laycock1,3, D Kazanas4

  • 1Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, 01854, USA.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Letters
|August 5, 2020
PubMed
Summary

This study reveals that spinning-down pulsars and spinning-up pulsars originate from the same population. This suggests Be/X-ray pulsars accrete from retrograde disks, supporting a new evolutionary model.

Keywords:
X-rays: binariesaccretion, accretion disksstars: magnetic fieldsstars: neutron

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Area of Science:

  • * Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • * High-Energy Astrophysics
  • * Pulsar Research

Background:

  • * Be/X-ray binaries are crucial for understanding accretion processes.
  • * Previous studies suggested distinct populations for spinning-up and spinning-down pulsars.
  • * Magellanic pulsars observed by XMM-Newton, Chandra, and RXTE provide a unique dataset.

Purpose of the Study:

  • * To investigate the evolutionary relationship between spinning-up and spinning-down pulsars in Be/X-ray binaries.
  • * To determine if these pulsars belong to a single, continuous parent population.
  • * To explore the role of prograde and retrograde accretion disks in pulsar evolution.

Main Methods:

  • * Compilation of X-ray observations from 1997-2014 for Magellanic pulsars.
  • * Analysis of spin period and spin-period derivative data for 53 high-mass Be/X-ray binaries.
  • * Comparative analysis of distributions for accreting (spinning-up) and non-accreting (spinning-down) pulsars.

Main Results:

  • * The distribution of spin-period derivatives versus spin periods is statistically indistinguishable between spinning-up and spinning-down pulsars.
  • * This indicates that both groups are drawn from the same parent population.
  • * Be/X-ray pulsars spinning down are accreting from retrograde disks.

Conclusions:

  • * A unified evolutionary scenario for Be/X-ray pulsars is proposed.
  • * The presence of both prograde and retrograde disks in roughly equal numbers supports this new model.
  • * Pulsar spin evolution is intrinsically linked to accretion disk orientation.