The number of binaries containing black holes ( BH ) or neutron stars ( NS ) depends critically on the fraction of binaries that survive supernova ( SN ) explosions .
We searched for surviving star plus remnant binaries in a sample of 49 supernova remnants ( SNR ) containing 23 previously identified compact remnants and three high mass X-ray binaries ( HMXB ) , finding no new interacting or non-interacting binaries .
The upper limits on any main sequence stellar companion are typically \mathrel { \raise 1.29 pt \hbox { $ < $ } \mkern - 14.0 mu \lower 2.58 pt \hbox { $ \sim$ } } 0.2 M _ { \odot } and are at worst \mathrel { \raise 1.29 pt \hbox { $ < $ } \mkern - 14.0 mu \lower 2.58 pt \hbox { $ \sim$ } } 3 M _ { \odot } .
This implies that f < 0.1 of core collapse SNRs contain a non-interacting binary , and f = 0.083 ( 0.032 < f < 0.17 ) contain an interacting binary at 90 % confidence .
We also find that the transverse velocities of HMXBs are low , with a median of only 12 km/s for field HMXBs , so surviving binaries will generally be found very close to the explosion center .
We compare the results to a “ standard ” StarTrack binary population synthesis ( BPS ) model , finding reasonable agreement with the observations .
In particular , the BPS models predict that 5 % of SNe should leave a star plus remnant binary .