2017MNRAS.466.1111W

We analyse the relation between the emission radii of twin kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations (kHz QPOs) and the co-rotation radii of the 12 neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries (NS-LMXBs), which are simultaneously detected with the twin kHz QPOs and NS spins. We find that the average co-rotation radius of these sources is <r_co> ∼ 32 km, and all the emission positions of twin kHz QPOs lie inside the co-rotation radii, indicating that the twin kHz QPOs are formed in the spin-up process. It is noticed that the upper frequency of twin kHz QPOs is higher than NS spin frequency by >=10 per cent, which may account for a critical velocity difference between the Keplerian motion of accretion matter and NS spin that is corresponding to the production of twin kHz QPOs. In addition, we also find that ∼83 per cent of twin kHz QPOs cluster around the radius range of 15-20 km, which may be affected by the hard surface or the local strong magnetic field of the NS. As a special case, SAX J1808.4-3658 shows the larger emission radii of twin kHz QPOs of r ∼ 21-24 km, which may be due to its low accretion rate or small measured NS mass (<1.4 M_☉).