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The formation of black-holes in low-mass X-ray binaries

Simon F. Portegies Zwart, Frank Verbunt, Ene Ergma

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/9701037

Abstract

We calculate the formation rates of low-mass X-ray binaries with a black hole. Both a semi-analytic and a more detailed model predict formation rates two orders of magnitude lower than derived from the observations. Solution of this conundrum requires either that stars with masses less than 20M can evolve into a black hole, or that stellar wind from a member of a binary is accompanied by a much larger loss of angular momentum than hitherto assumed.

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