Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2017
Recent studies of the x-ray sources in globular clusters have provided important new clues for both the dynamical processes in clusters and the stellar content and evolution of globular clusters. Very deep x-ray images of several globular clusters show evidence for diffuse x-ray emission from hot gas which may be related by a simple shock model to properties of both the cluster, such as its orbit in the Galaxy, and the interstellar medium in the halo of the Galaxy. The x-ray surveys conducted with the Einstein Observatory are reviewed and the results derived for the luminosity function, masses and nature of the compact x-ray sources are discussed. The evidence for the compact binary nature of the sources is now overwhelming, but long-term x-ray variability studies previously reported may suggest that some of the systems are in fact triple systems with distant companions. Possible relationships between the initial mass function, stellar density and cluster evolution are discussed, and our arguments that the ostensibly similar compact x-ray sources in the galactic bulge are remnants of a population of globular clusters disrupted by giant molecular clouds are updated.
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