We present results of the study of persistent high mass X-ray binaries ( HMXBs ) in the Milky Way , obtained from the deep INTEGRAL Galactic plane survey .
This survey provides us a new insight into the population of high mass X-ray binaries because almost half of the whole sample consists of sources discovered with INTEGRAL .
It is demonstrated for the first time that the majority of persistent HMXBs have supergiant companions and their luminosity function steepens somewhere around \sim 2 \times 10 ^ { 36 } erg s ^ { -1 } .
We show that the spatial density distribution of HMXBs correlates well with the star formation rate distribution in the Galaxy .
The vertical distribution of HMXBs has a scale-height h \simeq 85 pc , that is somewhat larger than the distribution of young stars in the Galaxy .
We propose a simple toy model , which adequately describes general properties of HMXBs in which neutron stars accrete a matter from the wind of the its companion ( wind-fed NS-HMXBs population ) .
Using the elaborated model we argue that a flaring activity of so-called supergiant fast X-ray transients , the recently recognized sub-sample of HMXBs , is likely related with the magnetic arrest of their accretion .