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Probing supernovae and kicks in post-supernova binaries

Nature volume 625, pages E18–E23 (2024)Cite this article

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Matters Arising to this article was published on 24 January 2024

The Original Article was published on 01 February 2023

arising from: N. D. Richardson et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05618-9 (2023)

Knowledge of the formation of neutron stars in supernova explosions is of fundamental importance in wide areas of contemporary astrophysics: X-ray binaries, magnetars, radio pulsars and, not least, double neutron-star systems that merge and become gravitational-wave sources. A recent study by Richardson et al.1 reported that the neutron star in the Be-star/X-ray binary SGR 0755−2933 (CPD −29 2176)2,3 descended from an ultra-stripped supernova. Using the same observational data as Richardson et al.1, however, we find that the majority of progenitor solutions for SGR 0755−2933 are of normal type Ib/c supernovae, which allows for up to several solar masses of material to be ejected in the supernova event. To correctly probe the supernova explosion physics and inferring pre-supernova conditions in a binary system, a full kinematic analysis based on post-supernova data is always needed.

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Fig. 1: Eccentricity as function of supernova kick velocity and polar kick angle for a post-supernova system resembling SGR 0755−2933.
Fig. 2: Distribution of the count of the mass of the exploding star that produced the neutron star in SGR 0755−2933.

Data availability

The simulated solution data shown in Fig. 2 and Extended Data Fig. 2 are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Code availability

The Python scripts for producing all figures are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Fynbo for stimulating discussions and BSc project examination.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials and Production, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    C. Larsen, H. C. G. Larsen, C. C. Pedersen, P. N. Thomsen, J. Tøffner-Clausen & T. M. Tauris

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  4. P. N. Thomsen
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Contributions

All authors contributed equally. C.L., H.C.G.L., C.C.P., P.N.T. and J.T.-C. prepared the code, derived analytical equations and investigated background material. T.M.T. outlined the project, made the initial computations and drafted the paper. All authors discussed the results.

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Correspondence to T. M. Tauris.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Fig. 1 Eccentricity as function of SN kick velocity and polar kick angle, using four different secondary kick angles, for a post-SN system resembling SGR 0755−2933.

The eccentricity is color-coded between 0 and 1, the SN kick velocity magnitude, w, is in units of the pre-SN relative orbital velocity, vrel, and the secondary kick angles are ϕ = 0° (top left), ϕ = 40° (top right), ϕ = 60° (bottom left), and ϕ = 90° (bottom right). The plots are based on analytical calculations assuming a mass of the exploding progenitor (helium) star of 3.6 M⊙, a resulting NS mass of 1.44 M⊙, and a companion star mass of 18 M⊙. The grey area indicates the region where post-SN systems are unbound. The dashed line indicates the boundary where the critical polar kick angle, \({\theta }_{{\rm{retro}}}={\cos }^{-1}\,(-{v}_{{\rm{rel}}}/w)\), separates post-SN prograde (left) and retrograde orbits (right).

Extended Data Fig. 2 Constraints on the formation of the SGR 0755−2933 system.

The plots are based on Monte Carlo simulations of 500,000 SN explosions that successfully reproduced the observed parameters of SGR 0755−2933: post-SN orbital period of Porb = 59.7 days (within an acceptable range of ±3%) and an eccentricity, e = 0.00−0.12. The six panels (a–f) display distributions of: pre-SN mass of exploding star (a), pre-SN orbital period (b), magnitude of SN kick velocity (c), direction of SN kick velocity (d), post-SN eccentricity (e), and post-SN misalignment angle (f, i.e. tilt of the orbital plane due to the SN kick). The median and equal-tailed 50% (grey) and 90% (full range) credible intervals are plotted.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Scatterplot of 3D systemic recoil velocity vs. kick velocity magnitude.

The plot is based on our simulations of 500,000 systems that resemble SGR 0755−2933. The data pixels are color-coded according to their counts. The median and equal-tailed 50% (grey) and 90% (full range) credible intervals are plotted for each parameter.

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Larsen, C., Larsen, H.C.G., Pedersen, C.C. et al. Probing supernovae and kicks in post-supernova binaries. Nature 625, E18–E23 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06847-2

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