Influence of irradiation-driven winds on the evolution of intermediate-mass black hole X-ray binaries

TL;DR

This study investigates how irradiation-driven winds influence the evolution and observable characteristics of intermediate-mass black hole X-ray binaries, highlighting their impact on ULX phases and potential gravitational wave sources.

Contribution

It introduces detailed binary evolution simulations incorporating irradiation-driven winds, revealing their significant effects on ULX duration, parameter space, and orbital properties.

Findings

High wind-driving efficiency shortens ULX duration.

Irradiation effects reduce the initial parameter space for high-luminosity ULXs.

Some binaries may evolve into compact sources detectable by gravitational waves.

Abstract

In young dense clusters, an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) may get a companion star via exchange encounters or tidal capture, and then evolves toward IMBH X-ray binary by the Roche lobe overflow. It is generally thought that IMBH X-ray binaries are potential ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs), hence their evolution is very significant. However, the irradiation-driven winds by the strong X-ray flux from the accretion disks around the IMBHs play an important role in determining the evolution of IMBH X-ray binaries, and should be considered in the detailed binary evolution simulation. Employing the models with the MESA code, we focus on the influence of irradiation-driven winds on the evolution of IMBH X-ray binaries. Our simulations indicate that a high wind-driving efficiency ($f=0.01$ for $Z=0.02$, and $f=0.002$ for $Z=0.001$) substantially shorten the duration in the ULX stage of IMBH X-ray binaries with an intermediate-mass ($5~M_{\odot}$) donor star. However, this effect can be ignored for high-mass ($10~M_{\odot}$) donor stars. The irradiation effect ($f=0.01$ or $0.002$) markedly shrink the initial parameter space of IMBH binaries evolving toward ULXs with high luminosity ($L_{\rm X}>10^{40}~\rm erg\,s^{-1}$) and hyperluminous X-ray sources in the donor-star mass versus orbital period diagram. Furthermore, the irradiation effect results in an efficient angular momentum loss, yielding to IMBH X-ray binaries with relatively close orbits. In our simulated parameter space, about 1\% of IMBH binaries would evolve toward compact X-ray sources owing to short initial orbital periods, some of which might be detected as low-frequency gravitational wave sources.