Correlation analysis of the wind acceleration parameter in high-mass X-ray binaries

Abstract

This work presents a correlation analysis of the wind acceleration parameter β in high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). The aim of the study is to determine how β depends on the geometric and dynamical characteristics of the system, primarily on the ratio of the orbital radius to the stellar radius, a⁄R_* and on the terminal wind velocity v_∞. For this purpose, published values of R_*, a and v_∞ together with measured wind velocities in the vicinity of the neutron star, were used. Based on these data, the parameters of the β-velocity law were determined numerically. The resulting β values were then approximated using a linear regression, β≈k a⁄R_* +c, yielding a simple empirical relation. The results show that the linear correlation between β and the orbital-to-stellar radius ratio is weak (with a Pearson correlation coefficient r ≈ 0.22) and is accompanied by substantial scatter, indicating the influence of additional physical factors. The linear regression yields a small positive slope (k ≈ 0.14), which suggests only a weak tendency for β to increase with the orbital ratio. Because of the small sample size, this trend should be regarded as tentative. The proposed linear model allows β to be estimated without detailed spectroscopic analysis and may be useful as a rough empirical indicator of wind-accretion properties in HMXBs. The originality of this study lies in providing a simple empirical first-order assessment of the β parameter in HMXBs based on observed orbital and wind properties in systems where detailed spectroscopic constraints are limited.

Key words: high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), β-law (β-velocity profile), wind velocity profile, terminal wind velocity, orbital ratio a⁄R_* , correlation analysis.