TY - JOUR
T1 - The evolutionary status of SS 433
AU - King, Andrew R.
AU - Taam, Ronald E.
AU - Begelman, Mitchell C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was begun at the Institute for Theoretical Physics and supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant number PHY 94-07194. A. R. K. gratefully acknowledges support by the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council through a Senior Fellowship. R. T. acknowledges support from NSF grant AST 97-27875. M. C. B. acknowledges support from NSF grants AST 95-29170 and AST 98-76887 and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
PY - 2000/2/10
Y1 - 2000/2/10
N2 - We consider possible evolutionary models for SS 433. We assume that common envelope evolution is avoided if radiation pressure is able to expel most of a super-Eddington accretion flow from a region smaller than the accretor's Roche lobe. This condition is satisfied, at least initially, for largely radiative donors with masses in the range 4-12 M⊙. For donors more massive than about 5 M⊙, moderate mass ratios q = M2/M1 ≳ 1 are indicated, thus tending to favor black hole accretors. For lower mass donors, evolutionary considerations do not distinguish between a neutron star or black hole accretor. In all cases the mass transfer (and mass-loss) rates Mlr ∼ 7 × 10-6 to 4 × 10-4 M⊙ yr-1 are much larger than the likely mass-loss rate Mjet ∼ 10-6 M⊙ yr-1 in the processing jets. Almost all of the transferred mass is expelled at radii considerably larger than the jet acceleration region, producing the "stationary" Hα line and the infrared luminosity and accounting for the low X-ray luminosity.
AB - We consider possible evolutionary models for SS 433. We assume that common envelope evolution is avoided if radiation pressure is able to expel most of a super-Eddington accretion flow from a region smaller than the accretor's Roche lobe. This condition is satisfied, at least initially, for largely radiative donors with masses in the range 4-12 M⊙. For donors more massive than about 5 M⊙, moderate mass ratios q = M2/M1 ≳ 1 are indicated, thus tending to favor black hole accretors. For lower mass donors, evolutionary considerations do not distinguish between a neutron star or black hole accretor. In all cases the mass transfer (and mass-loss) rates Mlr ∼ 7 × 10-6 to 4 × 10-4 M⊙ yr-1 are much larger than the likely mass-loss rate Mjet ∼ 10-6 M⊙ yr-1 in the processing jets. Almost all of the transferred mass is expelled at radii considerably larger than the jet acceleration region, producing the "stationary" Hα line and the infrared luminosity and accounting for the low X-ray luminosity.
KW - Accretion, accretion disks
KW - Binaries: Close
KW - Stars: Individual (SS 433)
KW - X-rays: Stars
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U2 - 10.1086/312475
DO - 10.1086/312475
M3 - Article
C2 - 10642197
AN - SCOPUS:0034628144
VL - 530
SP - L25-L28
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
SN - 0004-637X
IS - 1 PART 2
ER -