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The X-ray binaries page

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I have tried to explain what X-ray binaries are and how they work. I hope that everyone will be able to get an idea of what is going on with them, but I am afraid that you will need to know some physics to understand why it happens.

I have made extensive use of links to educational pages on Astronomy written by someone in the U.S.A. called Jonathan Keohane - I hope he doesn't mind. He is not the only one to have pages explaining basic facts about neutron star and blck holes. There is a very interesting virtual trip to neutron stars and black holes at the Michigan Technological University and a lot of information on pulsars by Vicky Kaspi at MIT.

• This is the list of contents:

• I. Introduction to X-ray sources.
• II. What are X-ray binaries?
• III. X-ray pulsars.
• IV. High Mass X-ray binaries.
• V. Be/X-ray Binaries.

Sorry if I've missed anyone. I've only put links to personal pages of poeple I have actually met :

• If you are interested on Be/X-ray binaries, check James Stevens' page on our collaboration.
• There is a list of sources in Southampton, containing all known and suspected High Mass X-ray binaries. A smaller list is available in Sussex.
• There is a summary of IAU Circulars on X-ray transients at SRON (Click on X-ray transients).
• Paul Ray has a page on the wonderful system LSI +61 303.
• There is a page on Her X-1, courtesy of Hannah Quaintrell. Bram Boronson also has a page on Her X-1 , which must mean this is quite an interesting object.
• Very nice pictures of the accretion mechanism.
• Some more nice pictures of discs by Martin Still.
• X-ray pulsars are daily monitored in BATSE's Bright Source Report.

Written by Ignacio Negueruela