The INTEGRAL legacy on High Mass X-ray Binaries

TL;DR

The paper reviews how INTEGRAL satellite observations have significantly expanded our understanding of supergiant High Mass X-ray Binaries, revealing new populations, transient behaviors, and informing models of their accretion processes.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of INTEGRAL's impact on understanding supergiant HMXBs, including population growth and insights into accretion mechanisms.

Findings

Quadrupled the known supergiant HMXB population

Discovered obscured supergiant HMXBs and transient flares

Enhanced understanding of accretion processes and populations

Abstract

Observations with the INTEGRAL satellite have quadrupled the population of supergiant High Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXBs), revealed a previously hidden population of obscured supergiant HMXBs, and allowed the discovery of huge and fast transient flares in supergiant HMXBs. Apart from these 3 observational facts, has INTEGRAL allowed us to better understand these supergiant HMXBs? Do we have now a better understanding of the 3 populations of HMXBs, and of their accretion process, separated in the so-called Corbet diagram? Do we better apprehend the accretion process in the supergiant HMXBs, and what makes the fast transient flares so special, in the context of the clumpy wind model, and of the formation of transient accretion disks? In summary, has the increased population of supergiant HMXBs allowed a better knowledge of these sources, compared to the ones that were already known before the launch of INTEGRAL? We will review all these observational facts, comparing to the current models, to objectively estimate what is the INTEGRAL legacy on High Mass X-ray Binaries.