Formation of ultra-compact X-ray binaries through circum-binary disk-driven mass transfer

Abstract

The formation of ultra-compact X-ray binaries (UCXBs) has not been well understood. Previous works show that ultra-short orbital periods ($<1$ hr) may be reached through mass transfer driven by magnetic braking in normal low/intermediate-mass X-ray binaries (L/IMXBs) only for an extremely small range of initial binary parameters, which makes it difficult to account for the rather large population of UCXBs. In this paper we report the calculated results on mass transfer processes in L/IMXBs with a circum-binary disk. We show that when the orbital angular momentum loss due to a circum-binary disk is included, ultra-short orbital periods could be reached for a relatively wide range of initial binary parameters. The results of our binary models suggest an alternative formation channel for UCXBs.