Formation of black hole low-mass X-ray binaries

Abstract

The majority of known Galactic black holes reside in low-mass X-ray binaries. They are rare and fascinating objects, providing unique information on strong gravity, accretion disc physics, and stellar and binary evolution. There is no doubt that our understanding of the formation of black hole low-mass X-ray binaries has significantly advanced in the past decade. However, some key issues are still unresolved. In this paper we briefly summarize the observational clues and theoretical progress on the formation of black hole low-mass X-ray binaries.