Enigmatic sub-luminous accreting neutron stars in our Galaxy

TL;DR

This paper reviews the recent discovery and understanding of sub-luminous accreting neutron stars in our Galaxy, highlighting their properties, behaviors, and what they reveal about neutron star accretion processes.

Contribution

It provides a concise overview of the current knowledge on sub-luminous accreting neutron stars and discusses their significance in astrophysics.

Findings

Identification of a new class of neutron stars with low X-ray luminosity

Both persistent and transient behaviors observed in these systems

Insights into accretion processes at low luminosities

Abstract

During the last few years a class of enigmatic sub-luminous accreting neutron stars has been found in our Galaxy. They have peak X-ray luminosities (2-10 keV) of a few times 1E34 erg/s to a few times 1E35 erg/s, and both persistent and transient sources have been found. I present a short overview of our knowledge of these systems and what we can learn from them.