On the disappearance of kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations at a high mass accretion rate in low-mass X-ray binaries

For all sources in which the phenomenon of kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillation (kHz QPO) is observed, the QPOs disappear abruptly when the inferred mass accretion rate exceeds a certain threshold. Although the threshold cannot at present be accurately determined (or even quantified) observationally, it is clearly higher for bright Z sources than for faint atoll sources. Here we propose that the observational manifestation of kHz QPOs requires direct interaction between the neutron star magnetosphere and the Keplerian accretion disk and that the cessation of kHz QPOs at a high accretion rate is due to the lack of such an interaction when the Keplerian disk terminates at the last stable orbit and yet the magnetosphere is pushed farther inward. The threshold is therefore dependent on the magnetic field strength-the stronger the magnetic field, the higher the threshold. This is certainly in agreement with the atoll/Z paradigm, but we argue that it is also generally true, even for individual sources within each (atoll or Z) category. For atoll sources, the kHz QPOs also seem to vanish at a low accretion rate. Perhaps the "disengagement" between the magnetosphere and the Keplerian disk also takes place under such circumstances because of, for instance, the presence of quasi-spherical advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF) close to the neutron star. Unfortunately, in this case, the estimation of the accretion rate threshold would require a knowledge of the physical mechanisms that cause the disengagement. If the ADAF is responsible, the threshold is likely dependent on the magnetic field of the neutron star.