Evidence of polar and ultralow supernova kicks from the orbits of Be X-ray binaries
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866910941977772032 |
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| author | Valli, Ruggero de Mink, Selma E. Justham, Stephen Callister, Thomas Johnston, Cole Kresse, Daniel Langer, Norbert Rubio, Amanda C. Vigna-Gómez, Alejandro Wang, Chen |
| author_facet | Valli, Ruggero de Mink, Selma E. Justham, Stephen Callister, Thomas Johnston, Cole Kresse, Daniel Langer, Norbert Rubio, Amanda C. Vigna-Gómez, Alejandro Wang, Chen |
| contents | Supernovae, the explosive deaths of massive stars, create heavy elements and form black holes and neutron stars. These compact objects often receive a velocity at formation, a "kick" whose physical origin remains debated. We investigate kicks in Be X-ray binaries, containing a neutron star and a rapidly spinning companion. We identify two distinct populations: one with kicks below $10\,\rm{km}\,\rm{s}^{-1}$, much lower than theoretical predictions, and another with kicks around $100\,\rm{km}\,\rm{s}^{-1}$, that shows evidence for being aligned within 5 degrees of the progenitor's rotation axis. The distribution of progenitor masses for the two populations have medians around $2.3\,\rm{M}_\odot$ and $4.9\,\rm{M}_\odot$, corresponding to stars with birth masses of about $10\,\rm{M}_\odot$ and $15\,\rm{M}_\odot$. The second component matches the low-velocity mode observed in isolated pulsars. Combined with the known high-velocity component, which dominates isolated pulsars, this suggests three distinct kick modes. These results reveal previously unrecognized diversity in neutron-star formation. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_08857 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Evidence of polar and ultralow supernova kicks from the orbits of Be X-ray binaries Valli, Ruggero de Mink, Selma E. Justham, Stephen Callister, Thomas Johnston, Cole Kresse, Daniel Langer, Norbert Rubio, Amanda C. Vigna-Gómez, Alejandro Wang, Chen High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Solar and Stellar Astrophysics Supernovae, the explosive deaths of massive stars, create heavy elements and form black holes and neutron stars. These compact objects often receive a velocity at formation, a "kick" whose physical origin remains debated. We investigate kicks in Be X-ray binaries, containing a neutron star and a rapidly spinning companion. We identify two distinct populations: one with kicks below $10\,\rm{km}\,\rm{s}^{-1}$, much lower than theoretical predictions, and another with kicks around $100\,\rm{km}\,\rm{s}^{-1}$, that shows evidence for being aligned within 5 degrees of the progenitor's rotation axis. The distribution of progenitor masses for the two populations have medians around $2.3\,\rm{M}_\odot$ and $4.9\,\rm{M}_\odot$, corresponding to stars with birth masses of about $10\,\rm{M}_\odot$ and $15\,\rm{M}_\odot$. The second component matches the low-velocity mode observed in isolated pulsars. Combined with the known high-velocity component, which dominates isolated pulsars, this suggests three distinct kick modes. These results reveal previously unrecognized diversity in neutron-star formation. |
| title | Evidence of polar and ultralow supernova kicks from the orbits of Be X-ray binaries |
| topic | High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Solar and Stellar Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.08857 |