Twin peak quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) appear in the X-ray power-density spectra of several accreting lowmass neutron star (NS) binaries. Observations of the peculiar Z-source Circinus X-1 display unusually low QPO frequencies. Using these observations, we have previously considered the relativistic precession (RP) twin peak QPO model to estimate the mass of central NS in Circinus X-1. We have shown that such an estimate results in a specific mass-angular-momentum (M -j) relation rather than a single preferred combination of M and j. Here we confront our previous results with another binary, the atoll source 4U 1636-53 that displays the twin peak QPOs at very high frequencies, and extend the consideration to various twin peak QPO models. In analogy to the RP model, we find that these imply their own specific M -j relations. We explore these relations for both sources and note differences in the χ 2 behavior that represent a dichotomy between high-and low-frequency sources. Based on the RP model, we demonstrate that this dichotomy is related to a strong variability of the model predictive power across the frequency plane. This variability naturally comes from the radial dependence of characteristic frequencies of orbital motion. As a consequence, the restrictions on the models resulting from observations of low-frequency sources are weaker than those in the case of high-frequency sources. Finally we also discuss the need for a correction to the RP model and consider the removing of M -j degeneracies, based on the twin peak QPO-independent angular momentum estimates.

We investigate the three-dimensional, general relativistic Poynting-Robertson (PR) effect in the case of rigidly rotating spherical source which emits radiation radially in the local comoving frame. Such radiation field is meant to approximate the field produced by the surface of a rotating neutron star, or by the central radiating hot corona of accreting black holes; it extends the purely radial radiation field that we considered in a previous study. Its angular momentum is expressed in terms of the rotation frequency and radius of the emitting source. For the background we adopt a Kerr spacetime geometry. We derive the equations of motion for test particles influenced by such radiation field, recovering the classical and weak-field approximation for slow rotation. We concentrate on solutions consisting of particles orbiting along circular orbits off and parallel to the equatorial plane, which are stabilized by the balance between gravitational attraction, radiation force and PR drag. Such solutions are found to lie on a critical hypersurface, whose shape may morph from prolate to oblate depending on the Kerr spin parameter and the luminosity, rotation and radius of the radiating sphere. For selected parameter ranges, the critical hypersurface intersects the radiating sphere giving rise to a bulging equatorial region or, alternatively, two lobes above the poles. We calculate the trajectories of test particles in the close vicinity of the critical hypersurface for a selected set of initial parameters and analyze the spatial and angular velocity of test particles captured on the critical hypersurface.

Serious theoretical effort has been devoted to explain the observed frequencies of twinpeak quasi-periodic oscillations (HF QPOs) observed in low-mass X-ray neutron star binaries. Here we propose a new model of HF QPOs. Within its framework we consider an oscillating torus with cusp that changes location r 0 of its centre around radii very close to innermost stable circular orbit. The observed variability is assigned to global modes of accreted fluid motion that may give strong modulation of both accretion disc radiation and the accretion rate. For a given spacetime geometry, the model predicts that QPO frequencies are function of single parameter r 0 . We illustrate that the model can provide fits of data comparable to those reached by other models, or even better. In particular it is compared to relativistic precession model. Moreover, we also illustrate that the model consideration is compatible with consideration of models of a rotating neutron star in the atoll source 4U 1636-53.