Catalog of outbursts of neutron star LMXBs

Having statistics on their recurrence times is helpful to address questions related to binary evolution and populations, as well as the physics of binary systems. We compile a catalog of known outbursts of 87 transient neutron stars (identified through bursts or pulsations) and low-mass XRBs until mid-2025.

Most outbursts are taken from the literature, but we also identify some outbursts from public X-ray monitoring lightcurves. We find 109 outbursts not previously identified in the literature; most are from the frequent transients GRS 1747-312 and the Rapid Burster MXB 1730-335, though we suspect that two outbursts from Liller 1 may be from another transient besides the Rapid Burster. We also find new outbursts for 10 other systems, and verify substantial quiescent intervals for XMM J174457-2850.3, XMMU J174716.1-281048, and AX J1754.2-2754.