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(3:00PM) in the 2nd Floor Conference Room in Dearborn Speaker: Natasha Ivanova (CITA) “X-ray Binaries: Puzzle Bonanza” The abundance of X-ray binaries in our and other Galaxies and their brightness at many wavelengths make them key to our understanding of different physical processes (accretion and gravitational waves radiation) and of advanced questions in stellar evolution (the origin and evolution of binary systems, the final stages of massive stars, the formation of compact objects). Within the next decade, observations at existing and planned facilities in almost all wavelengths will put a heavy demand on further studies of compact binaries. In my talk, I will discuss what is our current knowledge of X-ray binaries formation and evolution, where we had a progress and where we have failed, what are new breakthrough ideas. Specific attention will be given to globular clusters, where dynamical interactions between objects lead to the enhanced formation of X-ray binaries. Their study surprisingly helped to understand the field population of X-ray binaries and millisecond pulsars better. Other topics to be discussed are whether we can put constraints on the stellar evolution by comparing the observed populations and theoretical results, which uncertainties in the theory seem to play the most important role and what questions must be answered in the future. |